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John,
We can almost hear the House GOP chortling as they wrapped nearly 50 stand-alone anti-voter bills into one giant wish list with every impediment to voting they could come up with, while substantially increasing the big donations allowed from anonymous dark money donors that will never be made public.
This is the House Republicans’ “American Confidence in Elections Act,” and it’s aptly named for the party of the American Con Job. How increasing the level of campaign donations that can remain anonymous to $50,000 could improve Americans’ “confidence” in free and fair elections requires twisting the language to the point of Orwellian doublespeak.
Paranoia seeps through the bill as it enumerates method after method of keeping American citizens away from the polls. The bill would reject any role of the Federal Government to expand access to voter registration and election information, explicitly nullifying President Biden’s 2021 executive order. Instead, Republicans would strictly prohibit federal agencies from doing anything to help register voters at all, or even encouraging people to vote.
This is patriotism?
Congress must reject the Republicans’ cynical power grab and move in the exact opposite direction to expand citizens’ access to the polls. Sign the petition to tell Congress to dump this dangerous and anti-democratic bill now.
Ultimately, it’s in the bill’s plans for the District of Columbia -- which has no Congressional vote whatsoever -- that the GOP fantasy enters into the realm of a fever dream. They’ve clearly been drinking the Trump Kool-Aid when they seek to require that every mail-in vote must be received (not just sent) by close of polls on election day (except from overseas or military bases), and that an unofficial vote count must be released by 10 a.m. the next day!
This is akin to Trump’s 2a.m. declaration in 2020, as the mail-in vote was still being unbundled, that he had already won.
If this bill passes, D.C. voters would be required to show photo identification to receive a ballot in person, or to request a vote-by-mail ballot. Poll workers would be required to create books full of photographs of every registered voter and consult them before allowing voters access to the polls, either checking against an existing photo in the books, or taking a photo at the polling place at the time of voting and adding it to the register.
What’s next? Fingerprints?
Provisional ballots would be thrown out if not cast in the correct precinct. Ballot drop boxes and same-day voter registration would be banned, and the District would be forbidden from sending out vote-by-mail ballots unless specifically requested by the voter. The GOP seems to be especially spooked by the idea of ranked-choice voting, which they seek to make illegal preemptively, even as activists have even officially gotten a referendum on the ballot.
Don’t let the GOP take advantage of voter suppression techniques to limit democracy under the guise of “increasing confidence,” while simultaneously increasing the role of anonymous dark money. Tell Congress to reject the “Big Lie Bill” and instead embrace efforts to expand access to voting.
Thank you for working to improve voter access to the polls and to keep big money accountable in our democratic elections.
- Amanda
Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund
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