House Democrats quietly passed a bill to federalize vote by mail and passed the “For the People Act,” which Republicans have warned will compromise the integrity of future elections.
In a vote along party lines the bill narrowly passed the Democrat majority in a vote 220-210. The bill “expands voter registration (e.g., automatic and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early voting)” and imposes limits on removing voters from voter rolls.
Republicans are warning that the bill will reduce the power of the states and give more control to the federal government.
“If this bill passes, it puts in all these terrible provisions,” Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior legal fellow of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, said.
“It’s a federal micromanagement of the election process, and everything that folks on the left want to reduce the integrity [and] the security of the election process is in there,” he continued.
“If you’re a state like Alabama or Texas that has a voter ID law, you might as well forget it, because this federal law would override all state voter ID laws so they’re now unenforceable,” von Spakovsky added.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) warned that the “Socialist Democrat Election Fraud Enhancement Act” is going to do terrible damage to the countries election system.
“The socialists seek to mandate no-fault absentee ballots, which are the tool of choice for vote thieves. They seek to eliminate the photo identification requirement and, by the way, when the federal government does it, that eliminates all state laws to the contrary,” Brooks said.
“It, to a very large degree, federalizes and micromanages the election process administered by the states. It implemented, as I mentioned, some of the worst changes in election rules that occurred during the 2020 election,” the Alabama congressman continued. “It requires states to restore the ability of felons to vote the moment they’re out of prison, regardless of uncompleted parole, probation, or restitution requirements or what states may believe is the appropriate restoration of voting rights for convicted felons.”
