[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 123 (Wednesday, July 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4873-S4874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Voting Laws

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, at any particular moment, with total 
certainty, Washington Democrats know one of two things to be true, 
either American democracy is so well-functioning, so sacrosanct that 
nobody can possibly question or badmouth it; or democracy is in total 
crisis, hanging on by a thread, and only a massive, sweeping partisan 
overhaul by Democrats can save it.
  Now, it can be hard to guess which of those opposite stories 
Democrats will be shouting on any given day. The narrative flip-flops 
at a dizzying pace.
  After 2016, when voters picked Republicans, Secretary Clinton and a 
whole cast of senior Democrats called the new President illegitimate. 
Two-thirds of all Democrats said Russia had probably or definitely 
hacked into our voting systems and actually changed the tallies, a 
baseless conspiracy theory, a big lie.
  Four years later, they kept insisting that democracy was broken and 
Democrats had to overhaul it. H.R. 1 was written and introduced on that 
pretense.
  As recently as last summer, when the 2020 election was looking close, 
Democrats and cable news spent multiple weeks in literal hysterics over 
what they said was a massive secret election conspiracy revolving 
around the Postal Service--another big lie.
  It was one frantic meltdown after another, constant, silly claims 
that our democracy would die. But last November, their story turned on 
a dime because Democrats got election results they liked a lot better.
  Now, suddenly, our elections were no longer in crisis. Now American 
democracy was finely tuned, fully legitimate, and beyond reproach. For 
about 11 weeks, from President Biden's election through his 
inauguration, Democrats and their immediate friends briefly stopped 
being our democracy's biggest doubters and became its No. 1 fans. But 
now, as Democrats look ahead to the first midterm that is almost always 
challenging for the sitting President's party, the silly hysterics have 
been switched right back on.
  This spring, the State of Georgia passed a mainstream election law 
that expanded early voting and made drop boxes permanent for the first 
time. The left responded with a total meltdown. Regulations that left 
Georgia with more flexible early voting and more flexible absentee 
voting than many blue States, including New York, were, insanely, 
called ``Jim Crow 2.0.'' What nonsense.
  Georgia Democrats scared huge corporations into promoting a moral 
panic that was completely and totally false. It was a shameless effort 
to manufacture an air of crisis to help Democrats ram their election 
takeover bills through the Congress, but it didn't work. The Senate 
rejected all the bad ideas in S. 1, so the made-up outrage had to be 
cranked up even higher--even higher.
  So this week, State legislators from Texas decided to grab some beer, 
hop on a private plane, and flee the State in what they are pretending 
is some great moral crusade. In reality, they have just come here to 
Washington to snap selfies, bask in the limelight, and beg Senate 
Democrats to take over Texas elections.
  Once again, this outrage is completely phony. The Texas Legislature 
was going to consider bills that would expand the minimum hours of 
early voting, make even more counties provide 12-hour days of early 
voting, and make it even easier for voters to fix mistakes on mail-in 
ballots so their votes would actually count. These bills would apply 
voter ID to mail-in ballots through a simple process that doesn't even 
require a driver's license number. They would clean up voter rolls to 
remove voters who have died or moved away.
  This is not controversial stuff; it is common sense. More than 80 
percent of Texans support voter ID. But Democrats have pulled out the 
same Chicken Little playbook that failed in Georgia, the same big lies.
  Yesterday, the President of the United States delivered a speech that 
was set in an alternate universe. He called these mainstream State 
laws, these modest integrity measures that are wildly popular with 
Americans--now, listen to this--``the most significant test of our 
democracy since the Civil War.'' Really? This is our new President, who 
promised to lower the temperature, bring America back together, and 
rebuild a civil society where we can dialogue as fellow citizens? That 
is the person who is now yelling that mainstream State laws are more 
dangerous than two world wars, more dangerous than poll tests and Bull 
Connor and actual Jim Crow segregation and somehow analogous to the 
Civil War? That is what the President of the United States said 
yesterday? What utter nonsense. It would be laugh-out-loud funny if it 
wasn't so completely and totally irresponsible.
  Here are the great sins of the Texas proposals. Here is what is 
apparently so outrageous: They want to wind down a few emergency COVID 
voting procedures, including drive-through voting and polling places 
that are open all night long. I am serious. That is what this is all 
about, that they want to wind down two COVID voting procedures: drive-
through voting and polling places that are open 24/7.
  Because of the pandemic, for the first time ever, some places in 
Texas experimented with these brandnew, unusual measures, but now 
winding them down is somehow an assault on democracy? Really? If Texas 
is not interested in permanently letting people vote from their car 
windows or at 3 in the morning, then President Biden says that ``they 
want to make it so hard and inconvenient they hope people don't vote at 
all,'' simply because you can't vote all night? Really? These brandnew 
exceptions for a 100-year pandemic are supposed to now be sacred 
pillars of our system. Things that we did last year to deal with a 100-
year pandemic--to get rid of any of that is a threat to our system?
  Voter ID protections are supported by majorities of White Americans, 
Black Americans, and Hispanic Americans, but President Biden calls 
these things ``a 21st-century Jim Crow assault''--one big lie after 
another. These people think that if they just keep repeating the same 
melodramatic clichEs, they will finally get to pull off the power grab.
  These false comparisons are an insult to the actual hurdles that 
Americans have overcome over the years together. We have won two world 
wars, faced down the Soviets, unwound brutal segregation, defeated 
actual Jim Crow laws, and endured the 9/11 attacks, but now the sky is 
falling? The sky is falling because of these mainstream laws that 
people actually support? Because Texans want to allow 16-hour days of 
voting but just not in the dead of night?
  Do they know that nobody outside of liberal Twitter and cable 
television is buying an ounce of what they are selling? The big lies, 
the fake outrage failed in Georgia. The big lies and fake outrage 
failed here in the Senate, and they will fail in Texas.
  The big lies and fake outrage are totally failing to persuade the 
American people. Americans want to make it easy to vote but hard to 
cheat. Americans know that having widespread and accessible voting, 
along with voter ID, isn't an attack on democracy; it is the definition 
of democracy.
  So, look, I understand the Democrats may be growing nervous about the 
2022 elections. I can see why. Liberal policies are overspending, 
overborrowing, and hurting our economy. They are destabilizing the 
Middle East, weakening our southern border, and increasing violent 
crime across our country. But the solution is not to keep lying to the 
American people about the health of our democracy. The answer is not 
this desperate craving for an unprecedented

[[Page S4874]]

partisan takeover so Washington Democrats can appoint themselves the 
board of elections for every county and State.
  The longer these fake hysterics keep up, the more Americans will keep 
wondering just why Democrats are this desperate--this desperate to 
seize control over election laws and why Democrats are this panicked by 
the prospect of voter integrity measures that are simple, that are 
fair, and that are popular with the American people.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.