Graham calls voting rights bill ‘biggest power grab’ in history

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that a sweeping Democratic-backed election reform bill was “the biggest power grab in the history of the country.”

“In my view, S.R. 1 is the biggest power grab in the history of the country. It mandates ballot harvesting, no voter ID. It does away with the states being able to redistrict when you have population shifts. It’s just a bad idea, and it’s a problem that most Republicans are not going to sign — they’re trying to fix a problem most Republicans have a different view of,” Graham said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Graham also said he would not support a compromise offered last week by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) 

“Well, one, I like Joe Manchin a lot, but we had the largest turnout in the history the United States, and states are in charge of voting in America, so I don’t like the idea of taking the power to redistrict away from the state legislators,” Graham said.

“You’re having people move from blue states to red states. Under this proposal, you’d have some kind of commission redraw the new districts, and I don’t like that,” he added. “I want states where people are moving to have control over how to allocate new congressional seats.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said late last week that Republicans would oppose Manchin’s compromise proposal.

“I would make this observation about the revised version. … All Republicans, I think, will oppose that as well if that were to be what surfaced on the floor,” McConnell told reporters.

McConnell’s comments are the latest signal that the election bill will fail during a procedural vote this week due to a GOP filibuster.