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Democrats in the Senate are expected to force votes on a series of election bills, setting up a showdown with Republicans who are all but guaranteed to block their efforts to enact the most expansive overhaul of the electoral process in a generation. Democrats have tried for months to pass a sweeping bill, known as the For the People Act. The measure would touch virtually every aspect of the electoral process, curbing the influence of big money in politics, limiting the partisan considerations in the drawing of congressional districts, and expanding options for casting a ballot. But Republicans blocked the bill from the debate in June, forcing Democrats back to the drawing board. Though their latest effort on Wednesday is doomed to fail, that’s also the point. They are looking to show that Republicans will not waver in their opposition to voting and election legislation.

It would help make a case to moderates in the Democratic Party that there is little chance of making headway on a key issue for the party unless changes are made to Senate procedural rules that require 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. Sen. Alex Padilla said, “If we think we can do something tonight or tomorrow that moves the ball forward then we are going to do it”. When exactly the bills will be called to the floor was unclear Tuesday as the chamber slogged through a series of late-night votes that will pave the way for Democrats’ big-ticket spending goals. But Democrats said they nonetheless intend to take action on the measures before lawmakers split town this week for their August recess.

Sen. Roy Blunt said, “I assume it’s something they think they’ll benefit from talking about over the break. They still won’t get a different result”. Party leaders have said passing voting legislation is a top priority that would serve as a powerful counterbalance to a wave of new restrictive voting laws approved in Republican-controlled states following the 2020 election. But the effort stalled out in the Senate months ago. Liberal activists have advocated for the elimination of the filibuster, though a handful of moderate Democrats, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have rejected such an approach, denying Democrats the votes needed to make the change. That’s where the series of votes on election legislation comes in.