With catastrophe in Afghanistan and our southern border in complete chaos on Joe Biden’s watch, Americans would be forgiven for thinking that Democrats are fully focused on those crises. But instead of solving real problems, Democrats showed they are more interested in partisan politics and consolidating political power.
After they failed to force a federal takeover of our elections with H.R. 1, Democrats are back to trying to take over our elections -- which brings us to H.R. 4.
While H.R.1 and H.R. 4 have different names, their flaws are the same: both are power grabs that seek to control how states conduct their elections.
By stripping away states’ ability to run their elections, H.R. 4 takes dead aim at Republican-led efforts to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.
In trying to pass this radical power grab, Democrats have come up with a cynical cover story: claiming they are trying to strengthen and save the Voting Rights Act. As Joe Biden would say, that’s a bunch of malarkey.
Let’s be clear: nothing about the Voting Rights Act is in jeopardy. Discriminatory voting practices outlawed by the 1965 landmark legislation are still just as illegal as ever.
The only thing that is in jeopardy are Democrats’ far-left political wishes. That’s why they are desperately trying to ram through this legislation full of partisan provisions that puts more power in the hands of unelected Washington, DC bureaucrats.
Under H.R. 4., targeted states would have to seek approved from the Biden Justice Department before making any and all changes to their election laws, practices, and processes.
This would include changes as innocuous as moving a polling place across the street or establishing voter-ID requirements; requirements that Americans – and apparently, now Stacey Abrams – widely support. This dramatic intrusion of the federal government’s power into a right the Constitution expressly reserves for the states is a recipe for disaster.
Democrats’ hysteria over even the most anodyne election reforms in Georgia and other places show the long lengths they are willing to go in pursuit of their political agenda. Furthermore, does anyone believe Joe Biden’s Justice Department would be an impartial arbiter when it comes to commonsense election reforms?
Already this year we have seen the Biden Justice Department weaponize their authority with a politically-motivated lawsuit they launched against Georgia. The RNC recently intervened in that lawsuit to defend Georgia’s recently election reforms from Joe Biden's big-government power grab.
And for those Democrats who claimed the Georgia law was “Jim Crow 2.0?" They would do well to remember that 95 percent of Georgians are registered to vote, one of the highest voter registration rates in the nation.
H.R. 4 is also as unnecessary and unpopular as it is extreme.
The record turnout in the 2020 election proved it is now easier to vote than ever before. And in addition to the nearly eight in ten Americans who support voter ID, 68 percent of voters believe state legislatures should decide the voting rules and regulations for their state, not the federal government
My guess is many House Democrats are going to be thinking about those numbers the day after the midterms next November.
Democrats failed in their first attempt at a federal takeover of our elections because it was wildly out of step with Americans who want secure and transparent elections. H.R. 1 continues to languish in the Senate, and H.R. 4 deserves the same unceremonious ending. Meanwhile, Republicans will continue to work to restore confidence in elections that are free and fair.