House Resolution 1, AKA the “For the People Act,” sounds as if it would benefit America’s citizens. On the contrary, this bill is designed to help politicians, not the people. It’s rife with potential for political abuse. The U.S. Senate cannot kill it quickly enough.
Besides being a federal power grab, one of this measure’s most enormously damaging consequences would be to nationalize ballot harvesting. H.R. 1 would let individuals from coast to coast collect other people’s ballots and submit them on their behalf.
I recently explained at National Review Online how Democrats falsely accused me of vote fraud in connection with the California Republican Party’s defensive use of ballot harvesting last fall. I focused on the role in this controversy of California’s then-attorney general Xavier Becerra, now elevated to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. My story exemplifies Becerra’s abuse of power. But, more so, it’s a cautionary tale about the dangers of ballot harvesting.
To recap, California started ballot harvesting in 2016, after Democrats passed Assembly Bill 1921 and legalized this electioneering tactic. The GOP fought this bill and lost (as they do with most bills in California). In 2018, consistent with their opposition to this practice, Republicans avoided widespread ballot harvesting. This unilateral disarmament cost Republicans seven of the 14 U.S. House seats that they held in California.
So, in 2020, the GOP had no choice but to organize its own ballot-harvesting operation. They deployed locked receptacle boxes in Republican offices across the state. Each box was manned by a staffer who collected the ballots. The staffer presented unique receipts with links to the Secretary of State’s website to let voters track their individual ballots. The program was heavily vetted by GOP attorneys and completely complied with the law. Ignoring these facts, Democrats cried foul. When the program rolled out, it quickly made national headlines.
As a low-level CAGOP field staffer, part of my job included promoting Republican get-out-the-vote efforts and events on social media. I posted a picture in which I posed beside one of these receptacles.
And then the firestorm erupted.
Liberal activists, operatives, and politicians accused me of election fraud. These lies flew from Twitter to the national news. Defamatory articles appeared, many with me as the villain. The hosts of the Damage Report falsely claimed that I violated state law and should be imprisoned. Various YouTube personalities falsely claimed that I had engaged in voter suppression.
“Someone should stuff him in that box,” talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel said about me. “Make no mistake, there’s no limit to what these people will do to steal this vote.”
In an instant, my spotless reputation was destroyed — despite my doing nothing wrong. Then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla and then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra abused their government offices by legitimizing these lies to score cheap political points. I neither planned nor approved the CAGOP’s ballot-harvesting project. My job simply was to help roll it out.
The CAGOP subsequently won every legal battle that it faced on this issue, unmasking the blatant hypocrisy of California Democrats, who virtually invented ballot harvesting. If H.R. 1 becomes law, Democrats will do this same thing nationwide.
H.R 1 claims that states "shall permit a voter to designate any person" to return his or her sealed absentee ballot — as long as that designee does not get paid, based on the number of ballots submitted. Like California’s law, H.R. 1 would prevent states from limiting the number of ballots that any person could deposit on behalf of others — including total strangers. Campaign, party, and issue activists can go door to door with Santa Claus sacks thrown over their shoulders and stuff them with other people’s ballots. What could go wrong?
Democrats argue that this is voter expansion. In Orange County, California, in 2018’s election, people reportedly carried stacks of 100 to 200 ballots and dumped them at the registrar of voters. Volunteers went door to door to collect people’s ballots. Voters dropped off ballots at specific events. Democrats even steered voters to unsupervised private residences as ballot-drop locations. This was all completely legal because of Assembly Bill 1921. Democrats celebrated these new measures…until Republicans tried them. As soon as the GOP evened the playing field and played by the Democrats’ own rules, they accused Republicans of voter suppression. This is asylum-grade psychological projection.
The GOP was following the very law that California Democrats put on the books, but they jumped at the chance to capitalize on the general public’s lack of knowledge about this practice. The average non-political person who hears about party members collecting other people’s ballots probably thinks it’s a crime. As the liberal media provided covering fire, Democrats turned this into a baseless scandal.
For example, Vice News ran a story on ballot collection by the Newport Harbor Republican Women. Someone with a hidden camera recorded them at a store legally harvesting ballots. This was a non-story. Vice still ran it, which stirred outrage against these GOP volunteers. Never mind that these women simply engaged in the same practice that Democrats had been doing for years, after they invented it, passed it, and signed it into law.
Democrats demand of Republicans: “If you’re opposed to ballot harvesting, then why engage in it? Shouldn’t you stick to your principles and not harvest ballots?” Once again, the GOP failed to harvest ballots in 2018 and lost overwhelmingly. If ballot harvesting is the law, Republicans have no choice but to compete accordingly, whether or not they hate this technique. Avoiding ballot harvesting now, while Democrats cavort in it, would be political malpractice.
Ballot collection is a win-win for Democrats. They can do it without any controversy and increase their vote totals. However, when Republicans play by those same rules, Democrats falsely can accuse them of breaking the rules. Democrat officials can use their power to launder anti-GOP lies, and the biased media will be happy to give it attention — until Republicans prevail in court — sometimes after Election Day. Democrats can use the public’s lack of knowledge of ballot harvesting to hurt the GOP and intimidate them into not harvesting ballots. And when they do so, Democrat attacks on them will sound legitimate rather than craven and hypocritical. All of this makes it that much harder for Republicans to win.
I still am trying to pick up the pieces of my reputation, which these lies shattered. Despite a good education, military service, and a promising resume, I am unemployed and had to move back in with my family. Even though the CAGOP’s ballot-box operation was not my idea, I bore the brunt of the Left’s backlash against it. Most of my former colleagues scored good jobs after the campaign victories, but I was left behind, likely due to this artificial controversy.
Ballot harvesting has been a fiasco in California. There is no need for more media circuses. There is no need to divide people further. There is no need to drive voters’ faith in elections any lower. Ballot harvesting weakens election security and stirs cynicism about our system. I do not want to see one other innocent person endure what I did and what continues to haunt me. If H.R. 1 passes, it certainly will create other innocent victims across America.
To keep elections safe and fair, the Senate must defeat H.R.1.
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California native Jordan Tygh is a former CAGOP Regional Field Director. The U.S. Coast Guard veteran earned a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University and a master’s from the University of Southern California. Tygh just launched a Go Fund Me page to raise funds for litigation against the partisan Leftists who defamed him in this case. He welcomes the support of those eager to resist the Left’s abusive lies.