Democrats Want to Make Voting Easier. What’s Not to Like?

A top priority for the new Democratic House majority is a political-reform package intended to, among other things, make it easier for people to vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is not pleased. He unloaded Wednesday against a provision of the bill that would make Election Day a federal holiday — which he considered a Democratic “power grab.”

In this, McConnell is just adhering to an increasingly stark line dividing the parties: Republicans think it should be hard to vote, and Democrats think it should be easier. It hasn’t always been such a clean division. Democrats have sometimes favored holding municipal elections on separate dates from state and federal ones, and they’ve been at least as likely as Republicans to support the proliferation of ballot questions and non-partisan offices. But especially in recent years, Democrats have been pushing reforms that would remove obstacles to registration, loosen rules on absentee ballots, allow for early voting and other flexible arrangements, and more. New York offers a good example: After winning unified control of the state government this year, Democrats made new voting laws an immediate priority.