[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 51 (Thursday, March 18, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S1625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               ELECTIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Now, Mr. President, on a completely different matter, 
I remember distant days long, long ago, way back through the mists of 
time, when Democrats said it would be wrong for Washington to overturn 
a State-certified election result.
  No, wait a minute. That was 2 months ago. Two months ago, every 
Democrat, cable news channel, and every liberal newspaper was melting 
down over some Republicans' efforts to dispute State-certified election 
results here in Congress. I vocally opposed those efforts myself.
  But right now, as we speak, Speaker Pelosi and Washington Democrats 
are literally trying to overturn a State-certified election here in 
Congress. That is exactly what they are doing over in the House right 
now.
  The voters of Iowa's Second District spoke in November. They counted 
the votes. They recounted the votes. The outcome was certified. That is 
the magic word, ``certified,'' that we heard over and over and over 
again in November and December.
  There was the opportunity to present complaints in court. Sound 
familiar? But the defeated Democrat passed up the opportunity to go to 
court. The process played out in a way that every liberal in America 
spent November, December, and January insisting was beyond question.
  Ah, but there is a catch. This time--this time--the Republican won, 
and the Democrat lost. So Speaker Pelosi and Washington Democrats have 
set out trying to overturn the result from right here in Congress.
  Congresswoman Miller-Meeks has been sworn in. She is here. She is 
working. But Democratic leadership is trying to use brute political 
power to kick her out and replace this Congresswoman with the Democrat 
whom she defeated.
  You don't often see hypocrisy this blatant and this shameless so 
quickly.
  Naturally, now that the Democrats stand to benefit from this, the 
concept of Washington overturning a certified election has gone from a 
massive outrage--a massive outrage--to a minor afterthought for much of 
the national media.
  This is happening at the same time that House and Senate Democrats 
are pitching a massive takeover of all 50 States' election laws. The 
same people who are trying to overturn this certified election result 
want to ram through a bill that would let them control the democratic 
processes that will determine whether they keep their jobs and their 
majority in 2 years' time.
  This isn't about principle. It is just an attempt to use a temporary 
majority to pull off a permanent partisan power grab.
  Democratic leaders have razor-thin majorities in both Chambers. They 
are obviously afraid they are going to lose them, so they have decided 
their top priority is a Washington rewrite of election rules.
  The Second District in Iowa is just the appetizer. Soon Democrats 
want to come for the main course. Every congressional district, all 50 
States, every election for every Federal office would have to be run 
the way liberal Washington lawyers who donate to Democrats prefer.
  Voter ID? Their bill bans it unless States implement a huge loophole 
that makes it meaningless. But ballot harvesting, where paid political 
operatives can hand in stacks of absentee ballots with other people's 
names on them? It won't just be allowed; it will be mandatory 
nationwide.
  Those are just two examples from an endless list. Outside special 
interests are putting tens of millions of dollars behind this.
  In fact, some Democrats are so desperate to rewrite the rules of our 
democracy that many of them want to break the Senate's rules in order 
to do it. They want to break the Senate's rules in order to rewrite the 
rules of our democracy all over America. People will argue that it is 
worth destroying the legislative filibuster over H.R. 1 because the 
rules that govern our democracy are so important.
  Of course, that is backward. The rules that govern our democracy are 
indeed uniquely sensitive and important. That is why this issue, of all 
issues, must be addressed in a fair and bipartisan way.
  This isn't a uniquely justifiable place to shred the Senate's rules 
and ram through something partisan. It is a uniquely unjustifiable 
place to do it.
  I worked with Chris Dodd to spearhead the Help America Vote Act back 
in 2002, a big landmark election bill that made it easier to vote and 
harder to cheat. It passed the Senate 92 to 2--92 to 2.
  That is the kind of consensus you build if you want to tune up our 
democracy. That's the kind of broad bipartisan support that exists for 
making it easier to vote but harder to cheat, a far cry--a far cry from 
overturning a result from the last election and dictating the terms of 
the next one.

                          ____________________