| | It has not yet been thirty days since the 117th Congress began, and not even ten since the Biden administration was inaugurated. Across the country newly reshuffled state legislatures are just getting underway, and yet we can already see how much work there is yet to do.
So, here's what we know right now. We're looking at:
- H.R.1 This is the #1 bill in play right now. H.R. 1 will fundamentally transform elections; federalizing operations and oversight as never before. It forces states to adopt things like same-day registration, establishes mass mail ballots, cripples state voter ID standards, limits voter roll maintenance, and expands voter harvesting (which, for the record, we are going to begin referring to as vote trafficking, because that's what it is. It's the predatory practice of exploiting vulnerable communities and stealing their votes. Vote Trafficking). There’s not a partner bill in the Senate yet, but it’s sure to come soon.
- S. 51 and H.R.51 - Senate and House versions of the Washington, D.C. Statehood Admission Act ... to make Washington, DC a state. (it's rare that Senate and House bill numbers match, but this bill would make DC the 51st state, so they matched the numbers for symbolic effect...)
- S.136 and H.R.237 - Senate and House versions of a "Vote at Home" Act(s) both to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to allow all eligible voters to vote by mail in Federal elections, standardize ballot dropboxes, amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to provide for automatic voter registration. The National Vote at Home Institute has been working these bills hard on the Hill (and they started long before COVID...like all these bills, what's in them has been a long time in the making...)
- H.J.Res.14 - Proposes an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to abolish the electoral college and to provide for the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States (aka National Popular Vote aka mob rule)
On the radar from the 116th and almost sure to reappear in the 117th...
- Last session's H.R. 4 and S.4263, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which hasn't been reintroduced in the 117th yet, but it most assuredly will. Here's a take on the bill from the Human Rights Campaign, discussing their position that Voter ID is a form of suppression to the LGBTQ community because transgender voters do not have ID that accurately reflects their gender (yes, you read that correctly).News Flash: gender isn’t a qualification to vote. Voter ID presents no suppressive intent to the transgender, or any other, community. The U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world that does not require a standardized form of Voter ID.
- Last session's H.R.4901 - Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act...making Puerto Rico a state, too.
There are other bills, like H.R. 322, a bill put forward by Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, to amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to promote integrity in voter registration, the casting of ballots, the tabulation of ballots in elections for Federal office, and other integrity-focused reforms. It is highly unlikely anything like this would pass, but the drafting of these bills is important because it keeps aglow an ember of the election integrity debate that must occur if we are to find our way back to free and fair elections.
We will work hard to keep TTVers apprised of these and other bills, but for those who are interested, check out Congress.gov and set up bill trackings so they can see the bills, track changes, and get familiar with the landscape. Download the bills as PDFs, word search them, ask your representatives about them, ask us. And check out what's happening with election reform in your own state.
Meanwhile, we are still working on opportunities to open up research projects, open source what we're finding and crowdsource solutions, while still fighting in court to stop the intimidation tactics of Stacy Abrams' Fair Fight Action (see True the Vote v. Fair Fight Action) and protect every citizen's right to question their government without fear of retribution.
Stay the course, fellow patriot. We are in this together.
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| | Catherine Engelbrecht
Founder, True the Vote |
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| | | George Stephanopoulos and Sen. Rand Paul Spar Over Election Integrity
On the January 24th episode of ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos spoke with guest Sen. Rand Paul about the results of the 2020 presidential election. The two engaged in a heated discussion, with the host demanding the Senator accede to a statement as being fact, and the Senator repeatedly asserting that such a demand was designed to impugn his character and that of everyone who believes it is important to root out fraud or abuse that may have taken place. In the clip below, the two sides of the argument seem on the surface to be about whether or not the 2020 election was "stolen" by means of fraud or abuse. That is not, however, the important point in the video, which you can watch...
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| | There is still a great deal more yet to be done in the fight for the vote.
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