The Democrats’ want to call their voting bill the For the People Act, but I would suggest you not be fooled by the marketing—this bill has nothing to offer for the people of our country. The so-called For the People Act is in fact a partisan takeover of our elections that seeks a government “of the Democrats, by the Democrats, and for the Democrats.” So, it’s no wonder it’s their very top priority and it’s literally the first bill filed in both the House and the Senate this year.

If this bill passes, it will shatter our nation’s faith in the fairness of our democracy, weaken the security of our elections, and attempt to entrench Democratic rule in the Swamp unchallenged for decades to come.

Senate Bill 1 is a federal takeover of our elections that would usurp the constitutional prerogative of the states’ in determining what the Constitution calls the “Times, Places, and Manners of holding elections.” Now while the Constitution has always given Congress the power to determine certain aspects of how elections are conducted, the Founders envisioned that this power would be exercised, in the words of Alexander Hamilton, only under “extraordinary circumstances” and only as “the last resort.” For example, Congress could intervene if states were simply refusing to hold federal elections in an attempt to deprive Congress of the members needed to operate under the quorum rules of the Constitution. Of course, we face no such extraordinary circumstances today—no matter the outrageous claims of hysterical journalists and politicians.

Almost every story you hear, and every Democratic claim you hear about state election law reforms misrepresent those reforms, or don’t put them in proper context. The Democratic Party, the very head of the Democratic Party, President Joe Biden, referred to Georgia’s election reform, for instance, as a “New Jim Crow” even though it has far, far more access to the ballot than Democratic run states like New York, and yes—Joe Biden’s own Delaware. Might also note that Kentucky passed a fairly sweeping election reform bill earlier this year, it still doesn’t go as far as Georgia’s bill did in providing early access to the ballot, yet there’s no condemnation of Kentucky’s bill. I wonder why! Could it be because Kentucky has a Democratic Governor?

The Democrats want to use these kinds of misrepresentations to pass Senate Bill 1, which would give all power over our nation’s elections to Democrats in Congress, who think anyone should be able to vote at any time, at any place, and in any manner, with remarkably little concern even for the basics of election integrity, such as establishing the identity and legality of individuals who are casting the ballots.

The bill before the Senate would invalidate voter identification laws in states across the country—laws that simply require individuals to present valid photo identification in order to vote. Now, Democrats like to pretend that voter ID laws are “racist,” just as they like to pretend that anyone who opposes them is also “racist.”

That would be a surprise to most of the American people, though. According to a recent poll, three-quarters of Americans support photo ID requirements, including nearly 70 percent of black voters who support photo ID requirements. That’s a pretty big claim of false consciousness by the Democrats. After all, it’s no great burden to present a driver’s license or a photo identification at the polling place in order to vote. It’s not some devious tactic to suppress any group of voters. If it was, maybe we’d need to ask some of these politically correct airlines like Delta why they require passengers to present photo identification before boarding flights. Are they engaged in some nefarious practice of racist “traveler suppression”?

I don’t think so. I think Voter ID laws are a basic means of securing the vote, just like three-quarters of all Americans think. Yet Senate Bill 1 would still eliminate them all, allowing anyone to register to vote under any identity, without presenting proof that they are who they claim to be.

The Democrats’ bill would also make permanent many of the vote-by-mail expansions that were rushed through as ill-considered emergency measures during the pandemic last year. The free-for-all of ballot harvesting and mail-in-voting during the 2020 elections caused many Americans to doubt the integrity of that vote. Removing guardrails against fraud will only convince more voters that the electoral process is rigged. Responsible elected officials should be trying to assuage voters’ fears by implementing adequate safeguards on our elections. After all, many of these practices were unheard of before the 2020 election. Now the Democrats like to say that they have to pass Senate Bill 1 in a response to these state election reforms, but I would point out this bill was introduced in the House two years ago—before the states passed any of the election reforms.

Oftentimes, these state election reforms being passed by legislatures who were appalled by their Governor’s sweeping power grabs. So, no matter what the conditions, the Democrats think it’s always time to nationalize our elections.

Another provision of the Democrat’s elections bill would repeal a donor-privacy safeguard that keeps the IRS from harassing non-profit organizations about the identities and addresses of its donors. Democrats claim that this change is about dark money mega-donors, but it would apply to any middle-class family that donates a few hundred dollars a year to a cause they care about, such as their church or a charity. Yet if the Democrats have their way, bureaucrats at the IRS will be able to force non-profits to name their donors or risk losing their tax-exempt status. This should alarm anyone familiar with the IRS’s track record of unfairly targeting conservative groups. After all, just last week, we saw a conveniently-timed leak of legally protected tax returns that came out right before the Senate Finance Committee had a meeting to justify higher taxes. What a coincidence.

Now these are just a few of the proposals in the Democrat’s elections bill. I haven’t even talked about the public funding of campaigns; I haven’t mentioned transforming the Federal Election Commission into a partisan weapon to be used by the President’s party against the opposition.

All of these provisions, and many more, encourage fraud, harassment, and corruption in our campaigns and elections. Not coincidentally, they all seem work to the advantage of the Democrats, or at least to the Democrats’ perceived self-advantage. It’s little surprise, then, that this partisan bill is supported only by Democrats—and not even all Democrats, for that matter. Not all the Democrats here in the Senate, not all the Democrats in the House, which passed it earlier this year by the thinnest of margins.

So, I’m proud to be part of the bipartisan majority in the Senate that is opposing the Democratic Party’s attempted takeover of our states’ election processes.

Political office in America is not the birthright of any party or politician. The Democrats should try winning their elections fair and square instead of taking them over in a centralizing power play. 

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