Van Hollen: Freedom to Vote Act a ‘Referendum on Whether or Not We Want to Protect Our Democracy’

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) sounded off on the Freedom to Vote Act.

According to Van Hollen, the passage of the bill would be a “referendum on whether or not we want to protect our democracy.”

“This has been an urgent matter for the entire year,” Van Hollen stated. “We have been working and had focused on this in every one of our Senate Democratic caucus meetings. What’s different now is time is running out because, as you point out, we are in the election year. State legislatures, Republican-run state legislatures continue to put up barriers, and so we’ve got to get this done. These would establish national standards to protect people’s voting rights.”

“Republicans used to be in favor of this until they were taken over by the big lie, and so we’ve been pushing to try to get the votes to get this done for over a year,” he continued. “Now we’re going to have the vote. Senator Schumer has been very clear. We will have that vote. Everyone will have to go on record in the light of day and in my view, it’s a referendum on whether or not we want to protect our democracy or not in passing the Freedom to Vote Act.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent