[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 107 (Monday, June 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4645-S4649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch
Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, before I begin, I want to first take
a moment and remember those that lost their lives in a horrific car
accident in Butler County, AL, this past weekend.
Ten people lost their lives. Nine of those were between the ages 9
months and 17 years old. A majority of those killed were in a
Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch bus. The girls ranch is an organization
that I have been involved with for 20 years. It handles young kids who
have been abused, young kids who have no parents. They start at this
ranch at most any age, and everything is paid for all the way through
graduation of college.
These kids were on a field trip coming from Baldwin County, AL, this
past weekend and were involved in this horrific crash. There are no
words that can bring comfort to these families or these children, but
my family and my staff and the people of Alabama are praying for peace
for all those affected during this unimaginable time.
For the People Act of 2021
Madam President, as I and others have noted, Democrats call their
flagship voting bill For the People Act, but a better and more fitting
title is the ``Nancy Pelosi Power Grab Act.''
My Republican colleagues have done a good job of highlighting the
many flaws of this legislation in the last couple of weeks, including
doing away with commonsense fraud protection like voter ID, forcing
mandatory same-day registration on every State, allowing paid political
operatives to harvest voter ballots, and directing taxpayer dollars to
the campaigns of progressive politicians. Sadly, there is plenty more.
But let me also note that this recent ``compromise'' is anything but.
A compromise among Democrats should have been their starting offer to
Republicans, not their final offer.
The most recent versions still run afoul of the Constitution by
trampling on First Amendment rights of free speech and taking away
redistricting from the States. While ID is still required to vote, the
bill expands what kind of ID meets that requirement, such as a utility
bill. But the last time I looked, there was not a photo on our utility
bill. The most secure form of identification is a government-issued
photo ID. States shouldn't be forced to water that down.
Americans want faith and trust in the integrity of their election
process. This bill does not provide solutions to strengthen these
processes, and once Americans learn what is in this bill, they will
agree.
The Pelosi power grab yanks power from the States. The Pelosi power
grab lets politicians stuff their pockets with taxpayers' dollars. And
guess what, folks. A slightly different version of a Federal takeover
of elections is still a Federal takeover of elections. That is exactly
what this new version of S. 1 is. It is hard to even call this version
of S. 1 a compromise when the Democrats only compromise with Members of
their own party. This was not a bipartisan negotiation to get an end
product that both sides of the aisle could support. The last time I
checked, we still have a 50-50 Senate. There has been no negotiation
with our side.
But regardless of its form, this bill does not solve the problems
currently facing our election system; it makes the problems worse.
You know, in sports, one team changing the rules by themselves is
called cheating. It is seen for what it is--a power grab. It is
stacking the rules to win the game instead of doing the hard work
necessary to get the job done.
Folks may be scratching their heads as to why one political party
thinks they can completely change the rules of elections all by
themselves, but if you have been paying attention to what the
progressives have been up to recently, it won't come as a big surprise.
Changing our country as we know it is the end game. That is why they
want to pass this Pelosi power grab--so those who disagree with them
have a harder time winning at the ballot box.
But it is not just elections. Remember when they tried to hoodwink us
with defund the police last year? Remember when they tried to walk that
back? But they had made their position very clear. Now we are seeing
the same thing with education, as critical race theory is pushed on
school districts across the country. Simply put, critical race theory
reinforces divisions on strict racial lines. It doesn't teach kids
moral values, like treating everyone with respect regardless of race;
it is just the opposite. Critical race theory teaches kids to hate one
another. That is one thing schools should absolutely--absolutely--not
be teaching. But, again, for Democrats, it is about changing the way we
view our country.
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What we should be focusing on is actually improving education all
over this country. The American people need to realize how far we have
fallen behind.
As columnist Mark Steyn wrote, ``Education is the biggest structural
defect in our society. We have an almost entirely corrupt and abusive
education establishment.''
Here is where that education establishment has gotten us: We are 37th
in the world in math, 13th in reading, and 18th in science. In 2019,
only 35 percent of our fourth graders were able to read at the fourth-
grade reading level--35 percent. Embarrassing. That was lower than 2
years before, and it was before the teachers unions kept kids out of
school all of this past year. You can imagine how it is today. It is
unacceptable. It should be unacceptable to every Member of this body.
We have got China outpacing us in every industry and at every level
of our economy. But Democrats are too busy painting the United States
as the world's villain. How can we expect our young people to defend
the United States abroad if they don't learn about the things that make
America the greatest country in the history of the world?
We, as elected representatives of Americans across the country,
should be doing everything--and I mean everything--we can to create
opportunity and to protect the freedoms that make this country great.
It seems like folks across the aisle aren't interested in that. They
have a completely different vision of and for our country--one that
most Americans don't agree with at all.
I bet if you ask folks back home if they want a bigger government and
less State and local power, they would say no way. I bet if you asked
them if a Federal power grab sounds like a good idea, they would say
no. I bet if you ask them if they want their kids to learn to be more
divided by race, they would also say no. They would tell you they want
their freedoms protected. They would tell you they want the Federal
Government out of the way. They want an education for children that
provides opportunity because education is the key to freedom and
success. Education can unlock every student's God-given potential, but
critical race theory swallows that key. The Pelosi power grab just
fills the lock with cement.
Ladies and gentlemen, this For the People Act is one party's attempt
to rewrite the rules--rewrite the rules of the game in hope that they
will get a permanent advantage, plain and simple.
It is really a shame. We are spending so much time on bills that the
American people don't want, bills that don't have bipartisan support.
So I urge my colleagues to come together and find solutions that will
unite us as Americans, not divide us further as a country.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HAGERTY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. HAGERTY. Madam President, I am here today to address Democrats'
deceptively labeled ``For the People Act,'' which should more
accurately be labeled the ``For the Politicians Act.''
This legislation represents a breathtaking, unprecedented power grab.
In a 50-50 Senate, this is a blatant attempt by those who are in power
by the slimmest possible margin to take over and rewrite the election
and campaign rules for all 50 States in one fell swoop.
This would be done on an entirely partisan basis to ensure candidates
from that same party win elections. In fact, while the only supporters
of the bill are Democrats, there is bipartisan opposition to this
legislation.
This legislation would disenfranchise every American through the
Federal seizure of the authority of each State's representatives to set
election rules for their State in accordance with the wishes of their
citizens.
This partisan legislation would wash away election integrity
measures, making it easier to cheat. Each invalid vote cast dilutes the
strength of each valid vote cast.
Our form of government for the people and by the people rests upon
voters' faith in the integrity of our elections. If we allow that faith
in our elections to continue to be compromised, we are allowing the
very foundation of our American system to be eroded.
Democrats don't want to talk about the details of this legislation.
They don't want you to peek under the hood. They want to just slap a
voting rights bumper sticker on it, jam it through, and then disparage
and name-call anyone who opposes it.
So let's take a look at exactly what is in this legislation.
Under this legislation, a Federal politician running for election can
take millions in taxpayer money for his or her own campaign.
The legislation says that States must then allow that politician to
pay political operatives to visit nursing homes, dormitories, emergency
shelters, and other residences to collect thousands of ballots and,
then, choose which ones to be dropped into unmanned drop boxes, maybe
in the middle of the night.
This bill would make it illegal for States to verify the identity of
voters at the polls. Under this bill, ballots arriving even a week
after election day would still be counted.
It would require States to adopt universal mail-in voting practices.
States would be forced to allow murderers, rapists, and child molesters
to vote, even if a State's citizens have adopted laws to prevent it.
It would require States to allow unregistered voters to cast ballots
by simply showing up on election day and signing a form, without an ID
and with no vetting allowed.
The bill would silence political speech by religious and nonprofit
organizations while politicians can use taxpayer dollars to air attack
ads with which many Americans would find distasteful.
The bill provides that if anyone disputes any of this, that is OK.
They can lodge their complaints with the Federal Election Commission, a
body that has been bipartisan since its creation. But wait. In addition
to changing the rules to benefit one team, the legislation also ``buys
off the umpire'' by transforming the FEC into a partisan, Democrat-
controlled body--a body that could hound the opposing party candidates
to the ends of the Earth. This bill transforms the judge into the
prosecutor.
I wish that was all this legislation did. It also snatches the
responsibility for drawing Congressional districts from the elected
representatives of all 50 States, who have done that job for the last
230 years, and sets up a Byzantine process that would ultimately hand
it over to an academic consultant hired by a liberal judge right here
in Washington.
Let me repeat that: A consultant hired by a judge in Washington, DC,
will be drawing every congressional district in the country.
Using government power to seize control of elections, to limit
speech, to pack tribunals, to ensure the ruling party stays in power--
that sounds like a headline you would hear in Venezuela, Russia, Iran,
or even China, not in the United States of America.
Not too long ago, both parties would have considered this partisan
power grab beyond the pale. But far-left operatives want permanent
power, and Democrats, eager to keep the power for themselves, are
afraid to tell them no.
Democrats are now characterizing this legislation as an emergency
response to recent legislation in a few States. This legislation isn't
just a solution in search of a problem; it is a power grab that for
years has been in search of a crisis--any crisis, manufactured or
otherwise--that can be used to justify it.
Democrat operatives introduced a previous version of this bill on
January 24, 2017, 4 days after President Trump took office. The
purported crisis then was the American people's election of Donald
Trump, which the Democrats found unacceptable. They continued this
effort by introducing yet another version of the ``For the Politicians
Act'' in 2019, which at that time passed the House without a single
Republican vote. Like the bill the Senate will consider this week, this
bill was a Democrat operative's electioneering fantasy--federalizing
unlimited mail-in voting, prohibiting voter ID requirements, and
allowing unregistered voters to show up and vote on election
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day. Wisely, the Senate, in 2019, never took it up.
Then, as the pandemic took root in the spring of 2020, Democrats, in
search of yet a new crisis to justify this bill, included it in a
pandemic relief bill that the House passed--again, without a single
Republican vote. Once again, the Senate dismissed it and wisely focused
on providing bipartisan pandemic relief, rather than using the pandemic
as a justification to federalize elections.
With the pandemic now in the rearview mirror, this legislation is
being pitched as necessary to preserve voting rights, using cartoonish,
overheated, and false characterizations of a few sensible, measured
voting integrity laws that have recently been enacted by States. Why?
Because Democrats have to invent a new crisis every 6 months or so to
conceal this quest to install themselves permanently into power.
Don't let them fool you. This isn't about some State election law.
The House passed virtually the same bill last year. Most of the
components of this bill have been floating in Democrat National
Committee back rooms for years.
This isn't about voting rights. This legislation protects voting
rights like banning security guards at banks would protect bank
depositors.
Now, why are the Democrats so desperate to pass this bill? Well, a
recent report from POLITICO explains it. POLITICO says:
What's at stake is . . . potentially the future Democratic
majorities. Many in the party privately worry that frontline
Democrats could lose their seats if Congress doesn't [pass
this bill].
So, to keep power, Democrats have determined that they have to take
over State elections. This is about holding on to power and nothing
else. There doesn't seem to be a power grab that is too extreme for the
modern left, whether it is this bill, legislation to pack the Supreme
Court, suddenly changing their position and pushing to scrap
fundamental Senate rules in order to obtain short-term political gains
or adding Washington, DC, as a State. It is all about one thing--
fulfilling a fantasy of permanent Democrat power.
Under this legislation, American elections would no longer be about
earning the support of voters by communicating a powerful vision.
Rather, American elections would be all about creating the largest
machine, identifying favorable voters, and mass-gathering their ballots
door-to-door as efficiently as possible.
The winning campaign would be the one with the largest army of ballot
harvesters to drive voters--registered or unregistered, with or without
ID--to fill out and hand over a ballot that will be ``dropped'' on
their behalf in unmanned ballot boxes.
Americans want commonsense laws that make it easier to vote and
harder to cheat. Such laws currently exist throughout the country. That
is why we had recordbreaking voter participation in 2020, including in
my State of Tennessee.
This legislation is as unnecessary as it is misguided and dangerous.
It is a politician protection measure that would do irreparable damage
to the fabric of this country, and it should be soundly rejected by
this body
Madam President, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, this Saturday was Juneteenth, the first
official Juneteenth recognized by the Federal Government as a national
holiday--the official end of slavery in America. I commemorated and
celebrated Juneteenth with my colleague Senator Van Hollen at a meeting
of the NAACP chapter in Randallstown, MD, and we reflected on the
progress that we have made since the end of slavery and the challenges
that still remain.
It has been a long path toward justice and equality in this country,
and I think we all recognize the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
with his famous quote that ``the arc of the moral universe is long, but
it bends toward justice.''
I think we all believe that, but in recent actions taken by State
governments to restrict voting rights, we see some very disturbing
trends that would take issue with Dr. King's statement that the moral
universe is bending toward justice. It seems like it has taken a
detour.
Voting rights is a fundamental issue of importance to a democratic
country.
After elections are over and we win, we celebrate. We celebrate the
fact that we have gotten the support of the majority of the voters, and
that is what democracy is all about. If we don't win--and I think many
of us have been involved in campaigns where our candidates have not
been successful--we go to work to try to attract more voters in the
next election so we can celebrate a victory. That is what participation
in a free society is all about. That is what democracies are about.
In repressive autocratic regimes, they will never accept the will of
the people. So they look at ways in which they can undermine the voter
record--what the voters want to do, the voters' will. In the 2020
election, we should all celebrate the record number of people who cast
their ballots. It was a record--the most ever casting their votes for
the Presidency of the United States. There were repeated reviews done
by both Democrats and Republicans at the national level and at the
State level and at the local level. It verified the simple fact that
there was no widespread corruption, that the will of the people
prevailed, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected President and
Vice President of the United States.
But that did not stop former President Trump in promoting the Big
Lie. As a result of that, several States have now taken action to make
it harder for people to cast their votes. The Brennan Center has
pointed out that we have seen the worst assault on voting rights since
Jim Crow. Fourteen States have enacted 22 new laws to make it more
difficult--more difficult--for people to vote. This is unprecedented in
modern times.
So what have those laws done? Made it more difficult for voters to
vote by mail, recognizing that for many voters, they prefer to vote by
mail. We have States that have 100 percent voting by mail. There has
been no indication of fraud in voting by mail.
States have shortened the time for requesting mail-in ballots for
voting, making it more difficult for individuals to be able to vote by
mail, requiring certain requirements to vote by mail, making it more
difficult to deliver their mail-in ballots, limiting the availability
of mail ballot drop boxes. All of that had been included. Why? Because
it makes it more difficult for people who are likely to vote for my
opponent to vote. That is what the State legislatures are doing--
stricter signature requirements, making in-person voting more
difficult, and purging voter rolls simply because a person did not
vote--again, making it more difficult for people to vote. And it goes
on and on and on in the type of legislation that has already passed or
is currently being considered by many State legislatures around the
country, making it more difficult to register to vote, making it more
difficult to vote, targeting potential voters more likely to vote for
their opponents, targeting minorities, young voters, and older minority
voters.
Let me give just one example. Using Georgia as a specific example,
their recently enacted changes will disproportionately hurt Black
voters. The Georgia State law imposes voter identification requirements
on absentee ballots, makes it hard to request an absentee ballot, and
makes it a crime for groups to provide food and water to voters waiting
in line.
Georgia is basically restricting mail voting in response to a shift
in the racial demographics of the voters who use it. On the other hand,
Georgia wants to keep mail voting available for older, White mail
voters.
Voter suppression is always unacceptable, and the razor-thin
political margins in Georgia may mean that suppression efforts like
these will change political outcomes. Rather than imposing barriers to
casting the sacred right to vote, Georgia should be looking at ways to
improve voter access.
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As the New York Times pointed out, the Georgia law comes on the heels
of a major upset for Republicans in the traditionally red State, after
voters picked Joe Biden in the Presidential election and elected
Democrats to both of the State's U.S. Senate seats. The paper noted
that the new Georgia law ``will, in particular, curtail ballot access
for voters in booming urban and suburban counties, home to many
Democrats.'' President Biden was right to call this legislation the
``Jim Crow in the 21st century.''
There are many other examples. Georgia is not unique in the efforts
we are seeing to suppress voter participation at elections.
Look, it is fair game to try to persuade voters to vote for your
candidate. It is not fair game to suppress their right to vote.
So what is the vote this week all about, the vote we are going to
have on bringing forward the opportunity to debate voter suppression
legislation to protect the right to vote? It is simply a motion to
proceed with a debate on the Senate floor. Let me repeat that. We are
not voting on S. 1, the passage of it. We are not voting on any
specific proposal. I know my friend from West Virginia has offered a
proposal. We are not voting on that. We are voting on the right for the
Senate to take up this critically important issue or whether it should
be filibustered so we can't bring up a voter issue to protect the
integrity of the right to vote.
Now, I support S. 1. I am a cosponsor of S. 1, For the People. I am
proud to support the provisions of that bill. To me, it is carefully
drafted legislation to deal with the modern threats to voter
participation. I am extremely proud that my colleague from Maryland,
Congressman John Sarbanes, is the principal sponsor of H.R. 1 in the
House that already passed the House.
It provides a basic Federal floor on protection of the right to
vote--on voter registration, on vote-by-mail, no-excuse balloting, 2
weeks of early voting, including weekends, no notary requirement for
absentee ballots, drop-off boxes. That is a simple voter protection
against the actions being taken by State legislatures that are aimed at
certain demographic groups, a Federal floor.
It ends political gerrymandering. I don't know how any of my
colleagues can defend the way legislative and congressional lines are
drawn today. I came from the State legislature. I am a former speaker
of the house. I was responsible for one of the redistricting plans of
Maryland when I was speaker of the house. It is just a horrible,
partisan, political process we use today to draw congressional lines.
I have been accused by my congressional colleagues in the House from
Maryland that I ran for the Senate to avoid having to deal with
congressional redistricting. There may be some truth to that, but I can
tell you this: It is time to end political gerrymandering.
Congressional districts should represent the communities' interests,
not an individual Congressman's interest. S. 1 takes a major step
forward in ending political congressional redistricting by
gerrymandering.
It provides a commitment by Congress to advance a preclearance
formula that was in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that now is not
operative because of the Shelby County decision. It puts us on a path
to once again have that important tool available in order to deal with
the freedom and right to vote.
It promotes voter security, S. 1, by eliminating the paper ballot--by
requiring the paper ballot, I should say, not eliminating it, by
requiring a paper trail. I think we all agree that we want to be able
to verify votes. The only way you can is if there is a paper trail, and
it provides for that paper trail.
It puts an end to the dominance of big money in the political system.
They do that in a couple of ways: one, disclosure--how can anyone be
against the disclosure of who is putting money into our political
system?--and secondly, providing a way in which we can get rid of the
dependence upon large special interest dollars.
It includes, S. 1, two provisions that I authored. One is a deceptive
practices act that deals with false or misleading advertisements which
are aimed at targeting minority communities to confuse and mislead
their votes.
It includes the Democracy Restoration Act, which I authored, which
deals with laws passed after the end of slavery in an effort to prevent
African Americans from voting, for, you see, there are States that
passed laws back then that are still on the books that disqualify for a
lifetime a person convicted of a felony.
The definition of ``felony'' is pretty general in many States, so we
have States where one out of five African Americans has been
disqualified from voting because of their conviction of a felony. Even
though they are fully part of our society today, they don't have the
right to vote. We need to remove that disqualification on voting.
My friend, our former colleague, John Lewis--the two of us were
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on the same day. In an
editorial published after his death, our former colleague John Lewis
recalled an important lesson taught by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and
I quote our former colleague:
He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up,
speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not
right, you must say something. You must do something.
Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation
must do its part.
Well, we cannot take action if we don't start, and we can't start
unless my colleagues allow us to proceed to this issue on the floor of
the U.S. Senate.
There is a reason why there are so many groups behind us taking
action. I have a Facebook Live that I do every 2 weeks with my
constituents. Jana Morgan from the Declaration for American Democracy,
which represents over 180 groups, from labor to racial justice groups,
faith groups, women's rights groups, environmental and good-governance
groups--all telling us that we need to move forward to protect our
democracy, that the Senate needs to act on this issue.
One of my guests, Virginia Kase Solomon from the League of Women
Voters--now, the League of Women Voters--you can say a lot of things
about them, but you can't accuse them of being partisan because they
are not. It is one of our premier nonpartisan institutions in America
with a proud history. They are telling us to take this bill up and act
for the sake of protecting our democracy.
We then have a chance to act, to take up amendments and vote on
amendments and vote on concerns, whether they are offered by a
Republican Senator or a Democratic Senator. That is what the motion to
proceed allows us to do, to take up these issues so we can vote on
them. But if you vote to filibuster the motion to proceed, we can't
even bring the issue up on the Senate floor for action.
I urge my colleagues not to filibuster the right of the U.S. Senate
to start the debate on protecting voter integrity, where each Member
will have an opportunity to debate the issue, and collectively we can
come together, as many of my colleagues have offered suggestions about
how we can improve S. 1, how we can make it a broader consensus, but we
can't do that unless we have the right to proceed to a debate.
I urge my colleagues to support the cloture motion on the motion to
proceed so the Senate can take up this most critically important issue
to the preservation of our democracy and the integrity of the right to
vote
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be
allowed to complete my remarks prior to the rollcall vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, if the Constitution is the
foundation our Republic, then the concept of ``one person, one vote''
is the cornerstone. It is also a promise that every single eligible
voter in America takes with them into that voting booth on that
election day. It gives them confidence that their vote matters. It
helps them to keep the faith in our electoral system and in their local
government.
We can talk about the vote on a grand scale here in Washington, but
this is where it really matters: back home at your local polling place,
in your home county, and in the precincts with the people who do the
work of
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standing up elections, running elections, and certifying their own
elections. It is of the people, by the people, for the people that this
process is carried out in each and every one of our counties. And you
know what, that is how it is supposed to be.
Article I, section 4 of our Constitution clearly states--here it is:
Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators
and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the
Legislature thereof.
Well, how about that? The Constitution delegates that authority to
the State legislatures, and that is why our States' secretaries of
state work with our counties to make certain the process is put in
place.
You know, I had the opportunity to serve on my county's local
election commission prior to my being in elective office. One person,
one vote--that is the No. 1 rule that guided the decisions they made.
When we recruit poll workers, it is the No. 1 concern that drives
people to go sign up. When we train the volunteers who are staffing
polling places, it is the No. 1 rule to teach. Every person gets one
vote. All legally cast votes are counted. That is the way it is
supposed to work--one person, one vote.
Here in the Senate, I am concerned that my Democratic colleagues have
forgotten about this rule. Why else would they once again pledge to
move a piece of legislation that would throw ``one person, one vote''
out the window? Many of my Republican colleagues have taken to calling
H.R. 1 or S. 1 the Politician Protection Act or the For the Politician
Act, and I will have to agree that is a fairly apt description.
There are a lot of problems with this bill, but I want to focus on a
few key provisions that will gut ``one person, one vote'' and destroy
confidence in our elections.
If this bill passes, say goodbye to meaningful voter ID laws. My
Democratic colleagues kept the idea of these requirements intact, but
to please their radical base, they added a loophole that would force
every single jurisdiction to accept affidavits in lieu of
identification--that is right, an affidavit. They may as well have
banned voter IDs because that loophole makes requirements that voters
prove they are who they say they are absolutely meaningless. They can
just sign a statement saying ``I am who I say I am'' without having to
show proof.
The bill also requires States to allow paid campaign operatives to
engage in ballot harvesting schemes. That is right. This allows your
paid campaign operatives to engage in ballot harvesting schemes. Now,
these ballot harvesting schemes have been proven time and again to
increase the risk of fraud, so much so that many States on their own
moved forward and banned ballot harvesting schemes. Why did they ban
this? Because it leads to fraud in elections.
Inexplicably, my colleagues also want to throw ballot drop boxes into
the mix. They pitched them as a convenience, but that convenience will
be nearly impossible to monitor and to protect 24 hours a day, which
means that it will be nearly impossible to monitor and protect the
ballots that are inside those boxes, and these boxes then become a
fairly convenient way to stuff the ballot box.
But perhaps the most dangerous, counterproductive, and outright
infuriating provision my Democratic colleagues have included in this
mess of a bill is a restriction against voter roll maintenance Anyone
with a bit of common sense knows how inaccurate or duplicate entries in
a dataset can add up. That leaves these datasets in a state of
disrepair, and that is how fraud and mistakes occur.
It is just one more provision in a bill raising red flags for local
officials in every single State in this country. And this red flag, in
particular, is prompting people to ask me if my Democratic colleagues
involved in drafting this bill have ever actually volunteered at a
local polling place, which really tells you a lot about how
shortsighted this legislation is.
This bill really doesn't have anything to do with voting rights. This
is a politically motivated Federal takeover of elections that would
give us the exact opposite of what is laid out in the Constitution.
The Founders--the Founders--granted the States power over their own
elections for a reason. The Federal Government is beyond incompetent to
get this job done. If you like the service you get from the IRS or the
EPA or OSHA, that is what you could expect the next time your community
has an election.
If we allow this bill to pass, the promise of one person, one vote
will crumble. The promise of counting eligible ballots and not counting
ineligible ballots would go by the wayside. And what do you get in
exchange? The promise of chaos, confusion, and a lack of confidence in
the integrity of the vote.