HR 1: Bipartisan Support for Popular Political Reform Evaporates in Congress

Published in Electoral Reform Mar 14, 2019. Photo by MIKE STOLL on Unsplash

Perhaps it is not surprising that Friday’s vote on HR1, the omnibus election reform bill, broke strictly along partisan lines … And yet, just last year, many of the reforms featured in HR1 won backing from Republican majorities in several states. Reforms like independent redistricting, automatic voter registration, campaign finance reform, and felon enfranchisement won handily in state ballot initiatives, with bipartisan support. In “Trump Counties” (those the President won by 25 percentage points or more) across five purple states, reform won by an aggregate 59%…