Democrats voted 191 to 8 against the amendment, to leave the bill's language as a felony. During the spring of 2006, at the peak of the protest marches, Democrats used this felony aspect to rally protesters against the bill as a whole. This strategy is often referred to as a "poison pill".
The Democrats' rejection of the amendment enabled them to leverage the felony provision as a rallying cry against the bill in its entirety during the 2006 protests, employing this strategy as a "poison pill".