WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today released the following statement after opposing a vote to proceed on a sweeping federal voting law package authored by congressional Democrats.

“Today the Senate rejected yet another attempt by national Democrats to execute a federal takeover of local elections on a narrow partisan basis,” Wicker said. “Congress should be working to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat, but this sweeping legislation would have done just the opposite.

“This bill would have overridden broadly popular and effective state election laws, banning states from requiring photo ID to vote and hampering removal of dead voters from voter rolls. Worse, it would have removed nearly every protection on absentee voting, allowed states to divert federal dollars to fund political campaigns, and eroded free speech protections by forcing nonprofits to disclose donors.

“I will continue to fight to protect our election system and preserve the power of state and local governments to run their own elections."