The so-called “For the People Act” was compiled after the
2018 elections to call into question the legitimacy of democratic elections for
partisan political purposes.
If it had been a serious attempt at legislating, there
would have been some outreach to some Republicans.
There would have been consultation with local election
officials to make sure it was workable.
There would have been more hearings and revisions.
The fact that it was intended as political propaganda is
betrayed by the absurd title - the “For the People Act”?
Also, despite Senator Schumer using Senate Rule 14 in the
last Congress to bypass the committee and put the bill directly on the Senate
calendar, Senator Schumer never used his right to force a vote on moving to the
bill.
At that time, the Democrat narrative was that Republicans
were not doing enough to secure the election so the results might be in doubt.
That’s out the window now of course.
Since they got the result they wanted, they endlessly
quote the Trump administration’s top cybersecurity official declaring the 2020
election the most secure in history.
I assumed last Congress that Senator Schumer would wait
until right before the 2020 election to force a vote so he could accuse
Republicans of blocking an election bill for their campaign narrative
questioning election security.
Instead, they repeatedly, dishonestly blamed the
Republican leader for “blocking” the bill, ignoring the fact that the Democrat
leader had reserved the possibility of forcing a vote.
This messaging bill has now been reintroduced and recast as
a response to a few state election security laws.
A handful of relatively modest reforms have been shamelessly
and falsely caricatured as “voter suppression”.
As I’ve mentioned before, the claim by some Trump
supporters that a certain brand of voting machine switched votes was lifted
entirely from the Democrats’ 2004 playbook.
And, President Trump’s questioning of his loss in Georgia
was simply following in the footsteps of the losing candidate for Governor two
years before.
She lost by over 50,000 votes and has never even bothered
to try to prove voting irregularities on that scale.
Foreign adversaries like Russia and China cast doubt on
the soundness of our democratic system, both to weaken us from within and to
justify their own repressive regimes.
American politicians should not do their jobs for them.
This bill is being called “democracy reform.”
I support our American democratic system. All Americans
should be proud of it.
We can and should have confidence in our elections.
Our democracy does not need a fundamental rewrite. It
works.
Let’s stop casting doubt on American elections.
Stop casting aspersions on common sense election security
measures supported by Americans of all backgrounds.
Let’s work together to boost the confidence of all
Americans in our elections.
