On Wednesday, Jan. 19, the Senate blocked attempts by the Democratic Party to pass the voting rights bill, which would loosen voting restrictions throughout the country. These restrictions determine the validity of mail-in ballots, as well as the method of how ballots are counted. Mail-in voting is still available at the state level, but the effort to make it legal at the national level has not been met with much success, largely due to Republican opposition. 

Arguments have been made in the Senate about these restrictions harkening back to some of the Jim Crow laws, laws that, in the past, attempted to prevent African-Americans from voting due to their race or ethnicity. 

Senate Democrats failed to lift the Republican filibuster, an action that senate members can take to prolong or prevent the debate process. The Democrats’ failure to secure enough in-house votes to continue discussion of the voting rights bill means that current legislation will remain unchanged until further notice.