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.