VOTING legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital to protect US democracy collapsed on Wednesday night when two senators refused to join their own party in changing Senate rules to overcome a Republican filibuster.

The outcome was a stinging defeat for President Joe Biden and his party at the close of his first year in office.

Despite a day of piercing debate and speeches, Democrats failed to persuade senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia to change the Senate procedures on the Freedom To Vote Bill and allow a simple majority to advance it.

“I am profoundly disappointed,” Mr Biden said in a statement after the vote.

However, he added that he was “not deterred” and vowed to “explore every measure and use every tool at our disposal to stand up for democracy.”

Voting rights campaigners warn that Republican-led states across the US are passing laws making it more difficult for African-Americans and others to vote by consolidating polling locations, requiring certain types of identification and ordering other changes.

But with Mr Manchin and Ms Sinema joining the Republicans in opposition, the change to the rules was rejected by 52 votes 48.

The late-night voting brought an end, for now, to legislation that has been a top Democratic priority since the party took control of Congress and the White House in January last year.

The Democrats’ legislation, full title the Freedom to Vote: John R Lewis Act, would make election day a national holiday, ensure access to early voting and postal ballots — especially popular during the Covid-19 pandemic — and enable the Justice Department to intervene in states with a history of voter interference, among other changes. It has been approved by the House of Representatives.

Both Mr Manchin and Ms Sinema claim to support the legislation, but Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to push the Bill over the Republican filibuster.

After it failed to advance by 51 votes to 49, cast largely on party lines, the rule change was proposed by Senate Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer, only for Mr Manchin and Ms Sinema to scupper it.

During bitter exchanges earlier in the process John Thune, the Republican Party’s number two in the the Senate, felt forced to declare: “I am not a racist.”