As a wave of voter suppression bills swept across Republican-controlled states this year, President Joe Biden called the assault the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. But voting and civil rights groups say they do not see Bidens White House doing enough in response.

The groups want Democrats to enact federal legislation like the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to counter that threat. Instead, they have heard that White House officials and close allies of the president have expressed confidence that it is possible to out-organize voter suppression, according to The New York Times .

Both nonpartisan and partisan groups have been trying to do that for years, or in some cases decades. And while they agree it may be possible to out-organize voter suppression, it takes an intensive amount of resources and time that could otherwise be directed toward other efforts.

The White House is essentially telling organizers, You got this. Just a little more time away from your family, just a little more blood, sweat and tears than what you gave to elect us, to hand us a Democratic Senate, said a senior Democratic operative in a state narrowly carried by Biden.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a nonpartisan nonprofit that supports voting rights legislation, sent a letter to Biden signed by more than 150 civil and voting rights organizations stating, We cannot and should not have to organize our way out of the attacks and restrictions on voting that lawmakers are passing and proposing at the state level.

If the For the People Act and the John Lewis voting rights bill die by filibuster, voting rights groups will be left to do just that.

What It Takes To Out-Organize Voter Suppression