Supporters of Freedom to Vote Act rally at Fairmont's Courthouse steps

Oct. 21—FAIRMONT — In downtown Fairmont in front of the Marion County Courthouse, a group from West Virginia Working Families gathered to bring attention to the Freedom to Vote Act, which is scheduled for an upcoming vote in the Senate.

The bill to protect and enhance voting rights was announced in September after months of dickering among senators in an attempt to appease West Virginia's own Sen. Joe Manchin, D.-W.Va.

In its first draft, the For the People Act didn't appeal to Manchin because it didn't appeal to Republicans. Manchin gave little else in explanation for his opposition, and even stated in an op-ed for the Charleston Gazette-Mail that voting and election reform "done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen."

But in September, a new bill was announced, this one the Freedom to Vote Act, on which Manchin's name was placed at the top. In giving Manchin the baton, senators handed Manchin the opportunity to craft a bill he could endorse.

Now, groups around West Virginia are showing support for the bill and working to build awareness.

"We are gathered here in support of the Freedom to Vote Act," Working Families Party State Director Ryan Frankenberry said. "We're on a 300-mile cross-state road trip that started this morning, and it's all in support of the Freedom to Vote Act. We're excited that Senator Manchin has put together this bill, this compromised bill, and working to get those votes and we just want to say how important it is that it pass now, and it pass no matter what."

"Voting rights is the fundamental issue for any other policy in the U.S. Congress or state legislature," W.Va. State Del. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, said.

"This bill is about protecting some of the things we have become so accustomed to such as early voting, protecting early voting, having a fair form of voter identification. And one thing that I wanted to tell everyone here today, or make clear, is that even though we've had these rights in the state of West Virginia for the past 20 or so years, many of these are not guaranteed," Garcia said.

Garcia referred to a bill that nearly passed last year that would have eliminated automatic voter registration. "It would have allowed a purge of people from the voting rolls if you failed to vote in one election in two years. This is wrong.

"At the end of the day, this bill has to pass," Garcia said.

Former West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant express her support for the bill at the rally.

"We had a positive 2020 election when it came to mail-in ballots, didn't we?" Tennant said. "Didn't this state embrace it, with more than 224,000 people saying yes, we want to be able to be able to have no-excuse mail-in absentee ballots?

"Guess what this legislature said? Not Delegate Garcia, but the majority. They said no," Tennant said. "They said, 'Yeah, it worked really well in 2020, but we're not going to make it happen now in West Virginia.'

"The Freedom to Vote Act makes it happen. Can we not have standards that help out across the board? That will help people who can easily walk down the street, but also help farm people who can't get a ride down to the polling place that might be three miles away.

"Senator Manchin said I'll bring people together, I'll work with people, and he did. And that's why we now have the Freedom to Vote Act, Joe Manchin's signature piece of legislation," Tennant said. "He listened to county clerks, he listened to secretaries of state, he listened to advocates, and rural West Virginians. And that's how he came up with this and why this is so important."

Tennant pointed out a few key elements of the bill that were important to Manchin. "He loves early voting," Tennant said. "He loves the no-excuse absentee voting. But he went above and beyond. He put in a way to protect our poll workers.

"It adds the extra protection that poll workers [need] because of the 2020 election. The threats and the intimidation that came about because of that," Tennant said.

The biggest problems for voters, Tennant said, are yet to come. "I have election officials that say 2020 was only practice. [They say] the subversion and the sabotage of that election was only practice for what will take place in 2022 and 2024 if we don't get it stopped now."

"This is Senator Manchin's legacy," Tennant said.

Working Families Party Organizer Thaddaus Breckenridge commended Manchin's pledge to work closely with people around the state and across the aisle to write the bill, whose lead sponsor is Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

"Joe Manchin took an opportunity to come back to the grass roots that have been feeding and nourishing him," Breckenridge said.

"And he realized that when it comes from the grass roots, it's actually something right. It's actually something pure.

"Our ancestors worked long and hard for this," Breckenridge continued. "Now is the time to show that for right now, everything that [we] can fear, we will turn into hope. Everything that seems that it is rotted, we will turn into purity.

"And everything that seems like it is denying our access, we will open the floodgates," Breckenridge said.

"The power of empowering each other will allow us to choose the people in office, the [people] of our community that defend working families and everybody in America," Breckenridge said.

To reach Lori Riley, email lriley@timeswv.com.