evidence: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republican senators closed ranks Tuesday and blocked Democrats' For the People Act, a massive election reform bill that's part of a broader political battle over voting rights. [...] The GOP's blockade wasn't a surprise. McConnell has intensely opposed this bill for months and criticized it Tuesday as a "transparently partisan plan to tilt every election in America permanently" in Democrats' favor. [...] Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said former President Donald Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him fueled a wave of ill-intentioned election bills in Republican-run state legislatures.