Biden and Harris deliver voting rights speech in Atlanta

Vice President Harris decried the growing slew of laws being passed across the country that restrict voting, saying that the nation should not be "deceived into thinking they are normal."

Harris referenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., noting that he said that the only normalcy that should be accepted "is the normalcy of justice."

"Over the past few years we have seen so many anti-voter laws that there is a danger of becoming accustomed to these laws, a danger of adjusting to these law as though they are normal, a danger of being complacent, complicit," Harris said.

"We must not be deceived into thinking a law that makes it illegal to help a voter with a disability vote by mail, is normal. There is nothing normal about a law that makes it illegal to pass out water or food to salespeople standing in long voting lines," Harris added.

The vice president went on to speak about the voting law passed in Georgia, saying that she has heard the "outrage."

"And I have met with voters in Georgia. I have heard your outrage about the anti-voter law here, and how many voters will likely be kept from voting. And Georgia is not alone. Across our nation anti-voter laws could make it more difficult for as many as 55 million Americans to vote," she said.

In the last year, 19 states passed 34 laws that restrict voting in some way, according to an analysis by the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice. And more changes are expected as state legislatures convene early this year.

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke first during todays remarks on voting rights. She began by noting that she and President Biden spoke last week on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection about the need to "fight to safeguard our democracy."

During her speech, Harris referenced a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. on the dangers of accepting the "normalcy" of "denying people the freedom to vote."

"More than 55 years ago, men, women and children marched from Selma to Montgomery to demand the ballot. And when they arrived at the state capitol in Alabama, Dr. King decried what he called normalcy — the normalcy, the complacency that was denying people the freedom to vote."

She continued: "The only normalcy anyone should accept, Dr. King said, is the normalcy of justice. And his words resonate today."

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are delivering a speech on voting rights in Atlanta as Democrats face pressure to pass two pieces of pending legislation opposed by nearly all Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Harris, whom Biden appointed to lead the administration's work on voting rights, is joining the President on the visit alongside several members of Congress, local officials and civil rights leaders.

Changing the filibuster rules in the Senate, which require 60 votes to end debate on legislation, is set to be a major focus of the day —  and Biden's address specifically.

The President's speech in Atlanta is the latest in his recurring calls for the nation's voting rights to be bolstered.

During his speech in Georgia, which will take place on the grounds of Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College, Biden "will forcefully advocate for protecting the most bedrock American right: The right to vote and have your voice counted in a free, fair and secure election that is not tainted by partisan manipulation," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.

Read more about Biden's speech here.

When entering Ebenezer Church ahead of his remarks this afternoon, President Biden said people should "keep the faith" when asked if he has the votes needed to move on voting rights legislation. 

The President, who was greeted by Democratic Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, did not answer a shouted question from the pool about his message to those who believe he hasn't done enough on voting rights. 

Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden are both slated to deliver remarks on voting rights soon.

As a likely showdown looms in Congress this week over federal voting legislation, Republicans aligned with former President Trump are pressing ahead at the state level to change voting procedures, conduct partisan investigations of the last presidential contest and seize more control over the machinery of elections.

Democrats and voting rights advocates warn that the unrelenting campaign to cast doubt on the legitimacy of President Biden's 2020 victory over Trump could erode voter confidence in elections and increase the chances that losing candidates and their supporters will challenge the results of free and fair elections in the future.

Recent polling underscores the peril. A CBS News-YouGov poll found that more than 6 in 10 of Americans said they now expect violence over the loss of future presidential elections. And a separate poll from The Washington Post and the University of Maryland found that about one in three Americans think violent action against the government is sometimes justified.

The Post-UMD poll also exposed a stark partisan divide: 40% of Republicans and 41% of Independents said violence against the government could be justified versus 23% of Democrats.

In the last year, 19 states passed 34 laws that restrict voting in some way, according to an analysis by the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice. And more changes are expected as state legislatures convene early this year.

Brennan's analysis found 88 restrictive bills introduced last year will carry over into upcoming legislative sessions, and that 13 new bills had been pre-filed as of last month.

The new proposals include a measure that would ban the use of drop boxes in Georgia — where Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in 28 years. An Arizona lawmaker wants to establish stricter voter ID requirements.

Read more about where things stand on voting rights on the state level.

President Biden is set to push for two pieces of pending voting rights legislation in an Atlanta speech this afternoon, according to the White House, as Senate Democrats continue to face hurdles in the chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set the stage for a showdown this month over voting rights — pledging to muscle through sweeping new federal legislation aimed at counteracting moves by Republicans in state capitols to restrict access to the ballot.

But to do so, he must accomplish a near-impossible feat and persuade reluctant senators in his own caucus to change the chamber's rules to bypass the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome Republicans' repeated blockades of the bills.

Despite supporting voting measures, two of his fellow Democrats — Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin — have defended the so-called filibuster, which requires 10 Republicans to support advancing legislation in an evenly divided 50-50 Senate.

Time is running out for Democrats, who are racing to establish new ground rules for voting ahead of this year's midterm elections that will determine which party controls Congress.

Republican-controlled legislatures, particularly in battleground states that saw increased turnout and Democratic victories in 2020, already have enacted a raft of new laws that limit absentee balloting, impose additional ID requirements and otherwise create new hurdles to voting. And more restrictions are likely to pass in upcoming state legislative sessions.

Schumer has set a deadline of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 17 to vote on rule changes if Republicans once again block consideration of the bills.

The looming confrontation comes as some GOP leaders have begun to voice support for a more modest approach: updating an arcane 19th century law, known as the Electoral Count Act, that details how Congress counts Electoral College votes from each state.

Schumer has insisted that an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act is no substitute for bigger electoral reforms.

As the Senate gears up to tackle voting rights, here's a look at the various legislative proposals and what they would do:

The Freedom to Vote Act: This bill from a group of Democrats, including Manchin and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, sweeps into one place broad changes to election and campaign-finance laws. The goal is to set baseline rules that all states must follow in administering federal elections.

Among its provisions: Making Election Day a public holiday, mandating same-day voter registration, guaranteeing that all voters can request mail-in ballots and restoring the federal voting rights for ex-felons once they are released from prison.

It also seeks to safeguard against partisan takeovers of election administration, ban partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts and mandate disclosure of donors to deep-pocketed "dark money" groups that seek to influence elections.

All 50 members of the Democratic caucus in the Senate back the bill; Republicans have rejected it as federal overreach.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act: The bill, named for the late Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who died in 2020, would restore the power of the federal government to oversee state voting laws to prevent discrimination against minority voters.

A 2013 Supreme Court decision gutted a central pillar of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which required nine states and parts of others with a history of racial discrimination to win approval or "preclearance" from the US Justice Department or a federal judge before changing their electoral policies.

Soon after the ruling, some states began enacting new voting laws, such as adding stricter voter identification requirements. And in the last year, Republican-led states have moved quickly to change more laws, spurred on by former President Donald Trump's baseless claims that widespread voter fraud led to his 2020 loss.

The John Lewis bill would change the formula used to determine which states need to obtain "preclearance" for their voting rules. It would extend preclearance coverage to states that have incurred multiple voting rights violations during the previous 25 years -- an attempt to address the Supreme Court majority's concern that some states were being unfairly punished for decades-old misdeeds under the old law, rather than current discriminatory practices.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is the only Senate Republican to sign on to the bill.

Read the full story and more about the bills here.

CNN's Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated once again that the Senate will hold votes on voting rights and filibuster changes “on or before MLK Day,” and added that more on timing will be released after President Biden speaks this afternoon.

Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju why they would pursue a rules change without key moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia or Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona signing on, possibly dooming it to fail, Schumer replied, “we’re still working to get it done, and we are still having, as we speak, active discussions with both Senators Manchin and Sinema.”

He added that the, “job of a senator is to vote, and the more important and pressing the issue is, the more that plays. We are going to vote.” 

“Every Senator’s going to have to make a choice, plain and simple, about how to preserve our democratic republic," he said.

However, Schumer still did not spell out which rules changes would be voted on. Instead, he said that they “are exploring a variety of different changes that can get 50 votes.”

Schumer also noted that “experts have told us moving by mid-January is about the latest we can go,” on voting rights ahead of the midterms this November.

Other senators who had previously balked at changing the filibuster spoke about why they believe it is necessary to do so now.

“I have been very reluctant since being here to talk at all about changing the filibuster,” said Sen. Angus King, a Democrat from Maine. “If we were here talking about a policy issue, I wouldn’t be at this podium. But we are not talking about a policy issue, we are talking about a structural issue. We are talking about how our system works.”

“I believe that the vote taken this week is the most important vote that I will ever take in my life, not because of any issue, but because of the structure of democracy itself,” he added.

Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana, said the Senate must act “to fix a problem in this country that could literally destroy this democracy. And if we don’t, shame on us. Shame on us as a body.”

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are laying a wreath at the crypt of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Atlanta, and will next visit Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, according to the White House schedule.

At 3:50 p.m. ET, the pair is scheduled to deliver a major speech on voting rights.

Without changing the filibuster rules, it's unclear how either voting rights bill Biden wants to be passed will get done. Biden is expected to bring up changing the rules in his Atlanta speech. He has previously expressed his support for making an exception to the filibuster rules in order to pass voting rights legislation.

CNN's Maegan Vazquez, Jeremy Diamond and Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post. 

As Democrats push to pass voting rights legislation through Congress, there's been talk of using a process known as the "nuclear option."

It's an overheated phrase that boils down to changing Senate rules to pass legislation with a simple majority.

Senators need 60 votes to do just about anything in the Senate but change the rules. That takes only 51 votes.

Nuclear? That sounds harsh for something as simple as a rule change.

Senators view themselves as being part of the "world's greatest deliberative body." It's a debatable point, but in order to protect the minority party and make sure nobody does anything without a full debate, Senate rules require that 60 of 100 senators agree to votes to move toward passing legislation. In the fancy language they speak on Capitol Hill, limiting debate and moving toward a vote is called "invoking cloture."

Actually passing the legislation takes only 51 votes, but because of the procedural rules, it takes 60 to invoke cloture and get to the actual vote. By requiring only 51 votes to limit debate, the entire character of the chamber would change. Instead of being forced to get buy-in from the minority party — Republicans right now — the majority party would be able to pass anything for which it could get a simple majority.

The idea is that it would figuratively "blow up" the Senate. For now, a simple majority Senate excites many Democrats who want to pass more legislation. It frightens Republicans whose strategy is to grind things on Capitol Hill to a halt.

The symbolism of "going nuclear" portends a sort of mutually assured destruction in the future, to borrow another Cold War term. Democrats won't always control the Senate. And when Republicans are in charge, you can bet they'll return the favor.

Has this kind of rule change ever happened before? Yes. We're already living in a post-nuclear option world when it comes to presidential nominees.

Most judicial and executive branch nominees used to require 60 votes to invoke cloture. Democrats changed the rules to require only a simple majority to get votes on most nominees during the Obama administration. Republicans changed the rules for Supreme Court nominees during the Trump administration.

Read more about the "nuclear option" here.