[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 123 (Wednesday, July 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4909]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FOR THE PEOPLE ACT

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, before I begin my remarks, I do want 
to respond to my colleague and his comments about the For the People 
Act, which the Democratic Party is continuing to push.
  Now, I will say that I am pleased to learn that many of my Democratic 
colleagues are standing up against the Jim Crow-era policies that their 
party put in place, the work that their party did with the KKK and 
other entities to block and obstruct access to the voting booth. And I 
will remind him also that the 1965 Voting Rights Act was a very solidly 
bipartisan effort that took place here in this Chamber.
  And in regard to their S. 1, H.R. 1, For The People Act, it is 
anything but the For the People Act. What this would do is make it 
easier to cheat and harder to vote. We should be working to make it 
easier to vote and harder to cheat. That is what election integrity is 
all about, and that is what the American people would like to see.
  What this bill would do, their S. 1, H.R. 1, would federalize 
elections. Now, many in this Chamber may have served on an election 
commission or been the secretary of state in their State, and they 
fully appreciate and understand it is the constitutional duty--the 
constitutional duty--of the States to set the time, place, and manner 
of elections, and that the voter rolls are maintained there in your 
local county by citizens who serve on the election commission and who 
work those polls. But this bill that the Democrats are wanting to pass 
would, in essence, do away with voter ID.
  Do you know what? Recent polling of various and different groups, 
numerous groups, have shown 80 percent of the American people really 
support showing a voter ID, showing an ID in order to cast that ballot. 
Prove that you are who you are. Their legislation would also 
institutionalize ballot harvesting, something that really offended so 
many thousands of citizens this year because with mail-out ballots, 
which they want to institutionalize, some people got three, four, five 
ballots. You can go online on social media, see pictures or videos of 
people holding up multiple ballots. That is not election integrity. 
That is not something that will ensure trust in the system. That would 
cause more doubt.
  We should agree--we should agree, as Members of this Chamber, that we 
will work together to ensure that our local and State officials can 
carry forward with their elections

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