Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) called Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.V.) recent memo on federal voting rights legislation, which was viewed largely as a compromise for opponents and supporters of a more sweeping reform bill, "a federal takeover of the election system."
"What he's saying to the state of Ohio ... [is] 'We're gonna decide how redistricting is done, we're gonna take it away from the democracy,' in effect," Portman said, referring to one of Manchin's proposals to ban partisan gerrymandering. "Right now, in Ohio, our state legislature makes that decision. These are elected representatives and he wants to take it away and make it a federal responsibility through some kind of a commission."
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