Democrats are currently discussing two ways to change the Senates filibuster rules in order to pass voting rights legislation. The options under consideration include a special carve-out from filibuster rules for voting rights legislation or the implementation of a new kind of talking filibuster.

The push to enact new voting rights legislation has been on a collision course with the Senates filibuster rules ever since Jan. 6. Democrats won control of the Senate that day with wins announced in both Georgia Senate run-off elections, and supporters of ex-President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the counting of the electoral votes underway at the time.

Democratic control of the Senate gave the party full control of the government for the first time in a decade and the ability to pursue a Democratic agenda, including voting rights. Meanwhile, the insurrection and the election fraud lies spread by ex-President Donald Trump have inspired Republican-run states to enact new restrictions on voting.

While Democrats were already destined to introduce voting rights as the No. 1 priority for legislation in both chambers, Republican reactions to Trumps lies have made it an urgent necessity to enshrine voting rights in legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared in March that failure is not an option on voting rights. Everything is on the table to pass a voting rights bill, he added.

Since then, Democrats have seen their first voting rights bill, the For The People Act, blocked by Republican filibusters twice in the Senate after passing the House on a near party-line vote (one Democrat voted no). Those filibusters followed Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) attributing his opposition to the bill to its lack of bipartisan backing, but then announcing he would support a slimmed-down compromise version that he claimed could win Republican support.