Left-Wing Group Writes Playbook For Biden’s Federal Takeover Of Elections

There's nothing nonpartisan about Biden's overly broad executive order directing every federal agency to focus on voter participation.

Until Election Integrity Issues Are Fixed, Conservatives Should Not Stop Talking About The 2020 Election

The only way we can be assured of more secure, trusted elections in the future is if we continue to debate and discuss what happened in 2020.

Arizona Republicans advance election bill to end mail-in voting — but it's likely dead on arrival



Republican lawmakers in Arizona are attempting to resurrect a controversial election bill that would eliminate nearly all forms of early voting and require ballots to be counted by hand.

State Rep. John Fillmore, who sponsored the legislation, has said he wants to "get back to 1958-style voting." His bill would end early or absentee voting except for voters who have a disability or expect to be out of state on Election Day. It would require voters to show up at a local precinct polling place to vote, and each location would be restricted to serve a maximum of 1,500 registered voters. The proposal requires votes to be counted by hand and the results reported within 24 hours.

This bill and others like it are supported by Republicans and activists who claim that 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. Democrats say the measure would suppress the minority vote and are accusing Republicans carrying that intention.

The state Senate Government Committee advanced the bill in a party-line vote of 4-3 Monday, but according to the Associated Press, the bill is expected to fail if brought before the full Senate or in the state House. An identical bill was defeated earlier this year when state House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) assigned it to every House committee, ensuring that it would never reach the floor for a vote.

Even supporters of the bill acknowledge there is an uphill battle to end mail-in voting in Arizona, a state where more than 80% of voters cast their ballots by mail.

State Sen. J.D. Mesnard (R), who supports returning to near-universal in-person voting, told the Associated Press that a bill passed by the Legislature can become a ballot referendum if supporters or critics collect enough signatures.

“If that were to happen here, it would go to the ballot and you have 85% of folks casting a mail in ballot on whether they get to continue casting mail-in ballot,” Mesnard said. “We have our work cut out for us.”

Still, Arizona Republican efforts to revisit the results of the 2020 election continue. State Sen. Kelly Townsend (R) said she intends to issue a new subpoena to Maricopa County for records related to the presidential election. She asserts the county has not sufficiently cooperated with requests for records from Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

Brnovich is a candidate for U.S. Senate running in the GOP primary to challenge Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).

In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, Republicans subpoenaed Maricopa County for ballots, voting machines, and data. Those materials were cited in a "forensic audit" of the election conducted by supporters of former President Donald Trump on behalf of Senate GOP leaders that failed to show Trump's loss was illegitimate.

Government Committee Republicans also voted to advance a bill that would require drop boxes to be monitored by an election worker or a security camera, the Associated Press reports.

Kyrsten Sinema obliterates all hope for Democrats to end the filibuster this year



Arizona Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Thursday drove the final nail into the coffin of Democratic ambitions to overhaul U.S. elections this year, declaring in a memorable speech that she will not now, or ever, vote with her party to end the Senate's 60-vote filibuster requirement.

Restating her commitment to supporting the three-fifths vote requirement to end debate and pass legislation, the Democrat accused both her own party and Republicans of equally contributing to "spiraling division" that prevents Congress from debate and compromise.

"These deepening divisions hurt our ability to work together. ... Americans across the country know this. They see it every day, not only on social media and cable news, but at their jobs and around dinner tables," Sinema said. "We are divided. It is more likely today that we look at other Americans who have different views and see the other or even see them as enemies instead of as fellow countrymen and women who share our core values."

Sinema Delivers Senate Floor Remarks on Voting Rights, America's Divisions, and the U.S. Senatehttps://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1DXGyDMLQzNKM\u00a0\u2026
— Kyrsten Sinema (@Kyrsten Sinema) 1642093980

While the progressive senator said she supports two Democratic bills that would overhaul U.S. elections and overwrite Republican-backed state election integrity laws, she reaffirmed that she "will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division" by changing the Senate's rules for a temporary partisan advantage.

"There's no need for me to restate my long-standing support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation. There's no need for me to restate its role in protecting our country from wild reversals of federal policy," Sinema said. "This week's harried discussions about Senate rules are but a poor substitute for what I believe could have and should have been a thoughtful public debate at any time over the past year."

Continuing, she said, "But what is the legislative filibuster, other than a tool that requires new federal policy to be broadly supported by senators, representing the broader cross-section of Americans? ... Demands to eliminate this threshold from whichever party holds the fleeting majority amount to a group of people separated on two sides of a canyon, shouting that solution to their colleagues."

The immediate political ramifications of this speech are that President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) can no longer pretend an upcoming vote to end the filibuster and pass the so-called Freedom to Vote Act will matter. With continued Republican opposition to that bill and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and without Sinema's support to end the filibuster, the bills are dead in a 50-50 Senate, and there is nothing Democrats can do about it.

Adding insult to the injury to Schumer's plans, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told reporters Sinema's speech was "very good, excellent."

“I think it’s the points that I’ve been making for an awful long time and she has too,” he said, according to CNN.

At least two Senate Democrats won't budge on the filibuster, and there are likely more with the same position who have remained quiet to avoid upsetting their voters.

Biden pivots to voting rights after Build Back Better agenda stalls in Congress



President Joe Biden on Friday revived his effort to get Congress to pass sweeping election reforms, declaring during a commencement address at South Carolina State University that Republicans have led an "unrelenting assault on the right to vote."

"This new sinister combination of voter suppression and election subversion, it’s un-American, it’s undemocratic and, sadly, it is unprecedented since Reconstruction,” Biden said, addressing students at the historically black university, where he was the guest of House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.).

Biden's speech emphasized the importance of historically black colleges and universities, mentioned his record on police reform and infrastructure, and ended with Biden ceremonially handing Clyburn his college degree — which he had earned 60 years earlier but did not receive in person.

But the president reserved his strongest language for the issue of elections, leveling broadsides against congressional Republicans for blocking Democratic bills to reform elections.

Biden claimed that he "got started in politics because of the civil rights movement," and said he used to attend black churches after Catholic mass on Sunday mornings, "getting ready to go out and desegregate restaurants and movie theaters."

"Well guess what, I've never seen anything like the unrelenting assault on the right to vote. Never," Biden said, referring to voter identification laws and Republican-backed restrictions on mail-in ballots and other reforms passed by several states in the wake of the 2020 election.

Democrats claim that these reforms make it harder for racial minorities to vote and that federal legislation is needed to override these state laws. They've proposed bills that would set federal standards for elections, automatically register eligible U.S. citizens to vote, expand early voting, ease restrictions on mail-in voting, eliminate identification requirements for absentee ballots, and more.

Republicans counter that these reforms would make it easier to commit voter fraud and have blocked efforts by Democrats to pass these bills in the Senate.

“Each and every time it gets to be brought up, that other team blocks the ability to even start to discuss it,” Biden complained. “That other team — what used to be called the Republican Party. But this battle is not over. We must pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We’re going to keep up the fight until we get it done. And you’re going to keep up the fight. And we need your help, badly.”

Biden's focus on election reforms comes days after the White House previewed a pivot to the issue, since the president's Build Back Better agenda was stalled in Congress.

Thanks in part to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Senate Democrats did not have enough votes to advance a $2 trillion spending bill that would overhaul U.S. health care education, climate, immigration, and tax laws, in addition to extending several COVID-19 programs. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) shelved the Build Back Better bill for 2021 because Manchin would not commit to voting for it, citing his concerns with deficit spending and rising inflation.

While Biden will publicly rally Democrats to push for voting reforms ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, White House aides privately acknowledge that those bills will hit a dead end in the Senate. Politico reported Thursday that Biden's aides are clear-eyed that unless the Senate ends the filibuster's 60-vote requirement — which is not happening as long as Manchin and other centrist Democrats have anything to say about it — any talk of election reform is just talk.

So why is Biden shifting his focus now? According to his political advisers, the president ought to use his bully pulpit to rally his base into action before the midterm elections.

“The time is now. The urgency could not be more palpable than it is now,” Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network and one of Biden's close advisers, said. Sharpton told Politico that voting rights needs to be a top priority for the administration to keep black voters activated and engaged in politics.

“An inaction at this point would lead to an inaction of black voters. People are saying, ‘If they don’t do this, I’m not voting,’” he said. "People are saying they feel betrayed.”

Texas governor signs election security reforms into law



Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Tuesday signed an election security bill into law that tightens restrictions on voting by mail, among other reforms, overcoming objections from Democrats who fled the state in a publicity stunt to rally support for federal legislation that would undo the new reforms.

Abbott's signature ends months of political drama in Texas, where Republican lawmakers were forced to hold two special legislative sessions after House Democrats left the state for Washington, D.C., to deprive the GOP majority of a needed quorum to meet and pass bills. While in the nation's capital, the Democrats lobbied federal lawmakers for legislation that would override any reforms enacted by the Republicans, claiming that efforts to make elections more secure would disproportionately suppress the minority vote, weakening a Democratic constituency.

Republicans in Texas and in other states claim that such reforms are necessary to strengthen the electoral system and restore public faith in a process that was undermined by the results of the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump's claims that the election was "stolen."

"One thing that all Texans can agree [on] and that is that we must have trust and confidence in our elections. The bill that I'm about to sign helps to achieve that goal," Abbott said at the signing ceremony. "The law does however make it harder for fraudulent votes to be cast."

The new law requires that state residents who vote by mail provide either their driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on both their absentee ballot application and their absentee ballot forms, as well as on the envelope in which they return their ballots. Those numbers will be matched with voters' records to verify they are who they claim to be voting for — an upgrade from the current signature matching procedure. Any voter who needs to make a correction because of a technical error may do so online.

Under the law, it is now a state felony for public officials to send unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters.

Additionally, the law gives partisan poll watchers new authority, including "free movement" at polling places, as well as requiring would-be poll watchers to receive training before they can supervise an election.

Progressive groups and voting rights activists including the American Civil Liberties Union have already filed lawsuits in federal court to have the law struck down. They say that Republicans are intentionally discriminating against minority voters by making it harder to vote and have violated both the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution by enacting this law.

President Joe Biden supports the effort to overturn the Texas election security law.

"We would say to these advocates: we stand with you," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One. "There's more we're going to keep working on together."

Manchin says no to filibuster reform, yes to Schumer's big budget vote



Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has once again crushed progressives' hopes of radically changing American election laws by adamantly refusing to change his position on the Senate filibuster.

On Friday, Manchin met with the group of Texas Democrats who fled their state to obstruct a Republican-backed election security bill to discuss federal election reforms. These Democrats were there to lobby Manchin for a filibuster "carve-out" for the For the People Act, a bill that would overhaul U.S. elections and undo various election security laws including the reforms supported by Texas Republicans. Hypocritically, while they are calling for an end to minority obstruction in U.S. Senate, they are happily preventing the Republican majority in Texas from conducting business.

Manchin was unmoved. "Forget the filibuster," he told reporters after the meeting.

By maintaining his opposition to nuking the filibuster, Manchin ensures that Senate Democrats will have no way to overcome the 60-vote requirement to advance their voting bill. Republicans have already used the filibuster once to block the For the People Act, causing progressives to scream at Manchin and fellow moderate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) for, in their words, allowing Republicans to destroy democracy by enacting more stringent voter ID requirements and implementing restrictions on sending unsolicited mail-in ballots to voters.

Manchin and the filibuster have each proved to be significant obstacles to other parts of President Joe Biden's agenda, most notably infrastructure. Progressives who wanted a massive $6 trillion "infrastructure" bill that would cover free college tuition, national paid leave, child care, and various elements of the Green New Deal had to settle for a $3.5 trillion compromise after the West Virginia Democrat objected to the cost of the bill. His vote is crucial because Democrats will use a process known as budget reconciliation to advance their spending bill, which will circumvent a filibuster attempt by Republicans. But to do that, they need every Democrat in their conference to support the bill — losing a single vote in the 50-50 Senate means defeat.

In an interview with The Hill, Manchin indicated he will support the $3.5 trillion spending package as long as several of his concerns are addressed.

"I'm concerned about inflation, I'm concerned about a competitive tax code, I'm concerned about environmental standards that basically leave people behind in all these things," he explained.

He confirmed that he will not oppose the budget resolution Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will put forward later this summer, the first step in activating the budget reconciliation process Democrats will use to overcome the filibuster.

"I want it to proceed," Manchin said.

Biden delivers hyperbolic and intensely partisan speech accusing Republicans of 'un-American' opposition to democracy



President Joe Biden on Tuesday castigated Republicans for supporting popular election security reforms with a hyperbolic stream of invective accusing his opponents of subverting elections, of posing a "dangerous" threat to democracy, and generally being "un-American."

"We are facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That's not hyperbole," Biden said, speaking at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The president spoke partly to condemn his predecessor Donald Trump's refusal to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, partly to criticize Republican-controlled states like Georgia and Texas for passing election security bills, and partly to rally support for the For the People Act — federal voting legislation supported by Democrats that would weaken state voter ID requirements and override other Republican reforms at the state level.

The president made no mention of the Senate filibuster or the fact that the Democrats lack the 60 votes needed to overcome opposition to the major pieces of his agenda, including voting reforms. Instead, Biden used the bully pulpit of the presidency to paint concerns over election security as conspiratorial and supportive of a broad attack on democracy itself.

"The 2020 election was the most scrutinized election ever in American history. Challenge after challenge brought to local, state and election officials, state legislatures, state and federal courts, even to the United States Supreme Court not once, but twice. More than 80 judges, including those appointed by my predecessor, heard the arguments. In every case neither cause nor evidence was found to undermine the national achievement of administering the historic election in the face of such extraordinary challenges," Biden said.

"The Big Lie is just that: A big lie," he declared, referring to Trump's claims that the election was fraudulent and that Biden's victory was illegitimate.

"In America, if you lose, you accept the results, you follow the Constitution. You try again. You don't call facts fake and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you're unhappy. That's not statesmanship – that's selfishness," Biden said.

Biden tied Republican opposition to the For the People Act with historic efforts to deny black Americans and women the right to vote. He cast the Democratic voting bill as an antidote that would "end voter suppression in states." And he predicted that Republicans would launch "a new wave of unprecedented voter suppression and raw and sustained election subversion" ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, calling on Congress to act now.

The president said that a recent Supreme Court decision upholding two controversial election reforms in Arizona "does not limit the Congress' ability to repair the damage done."

He went on to slam election laws like those passed in Georgia and Texas, calling them "racist and discriminatory."

Biden accused Texas Republicans, for example, of wanting "partisan poll workers" to intimidate voters.

"They want voters to drive further" and "wait longer to vote," he claimed, repeating falsehoods about the Texas law. He made the incredible and unsubstantiated claim that Republicans "want the ability to reject the final count and ignore the will of the people if their preferred candidate loses," comparing the actions of Trump-supporting Republicans to those of autocracies around the world.

He further called 28 Republican voting measures enacted across 17 states a "21st century Jim Crow assault."

Even as Biden launched explicitly partisan attacks against his opposition, he sought to portray Democratic efforts to undo GOP election reforms as a bipartisan cause.

"We'll be asking my Republican friends in Congress and states and cities and counties to stand up for God sake and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our election and the sacred right to vote," Biden said.

"Have you no shame?" he demanded of Republicans.

"This isn't about Democrats or Republicans. It's literally about who we are as Americans. It's that basic. It's about the kind of country we want today."

Closing, the president said Republicans are leading "an unfolding assault taking place in America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in fair and free elections. An assault on democracy. An assault on liberty. An assault on who we are."

It was a starkly divisive speech from a president who aspired to unite the country.

Reacting, the Republican National Committee dismissed Biden's speech as "lies and theatrics."

"After Democrats failed to pass their federal takeover of our elections (H.R.1), Biden is continuing their dishonest attacks on commonsense election integrity efforts," said RNC spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez. "Meanwhile, Republicans are engaged in state-led efforts to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat, and polling shows Americans overwhelmingly support these laws."

Statement from RNC Communications Director Danielle Álvarez on Biden’s Philadelphia speech: https://t.co/BnkfXoFSRs

— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) 1626203758.0

The president's remarks are the beginning of a major messaging effort by the administration to attack Republican election reforms and rally support for Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. However, Biden's strategy of using a public pressure campaign betrays the reality that even with full control of government, Democrats do not have enough support among their own members to go nuclear and steamroll the minority.

Outspoken moderates like Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) may attract public scorn from progressive activists for being opposed to abolishing the filibuster, but there are more than a handful of Senate Democrats who have kept their own opposition quiet. Without their support, Biden's words remain all bark and no bite.

Texas Dems flee to D.C. on private jets to stop Republicans from passing election security bill



Texas Democrats are reportedly planning to flee the state in an effort to block the legislature from passing an election security bill supported by the Republican majorities and Gov. Greg Abbott (R).This would be the second time the Democrats have used a a walkout strategy to delay the bill's passage.

According to NBC News, at least 58 Democratic members of the state House of Representatives will leave Austin on Monday to block House Bill 3 from passing. By leaving, they will deny the legislature the required quorum of two-thirds of lawmakers present to conduct state business, effectively shutting the chamber down until they return to the state or the session ends.

Most of the Democrats will fly on two private jets chartered to take them to Washington D.C., where they will reportedly lobby federal lawmakers for national voting legislation. Other lawmakers will make their own way to the nation's capital.

The Republican-backed bill was blocked once before in May when Democrats staged a walkout from the state House chamber. Without a quorum present, Republicans were forced to end the legislative session without passing the bill. But Abbott, who considers the bill a priority, called a for special session of the legislature to take it up again in June.

Democrats say House Bill 3 and its companion Senate Bill 1, which implement new voter identification requirements for people voting by mail and ban election officials from sending unsolicited mail ballot applications to voters, would make it harder for minorities to vote. The bills would also end pandemic innovations like drive-through voting and extended hours during early voting, reforms Republicans say are needed to mitigate the risk of voter fraud.

Republican lawmakers worked over the weekend to advance the bills, holding overnight hearings and passing the bills out of their respective House and Senate committees to bring them to the floor this week.

To keep the legislature from considering the House bill, Democrats would have to remain out of state until the end of the special session, which could last up to 30 days. The Texas Constitution empowers the Republican majority to compel the return of absent lawmakers to the state Capitol, and Democrats expect GOP lawmakers to send the state Department of Public Safety to force them to return.

Democrats have apparently been planning their flight for weeks. "Initially, they considered decamping to West Virginia and Arizona, because Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have opposed abolishing the filibuster to pass the For the People Act, federal voting legislation the state Democrats support," NBC News reports. "But they feared the states' Republican governors would aid in their arrest and return them to Texas."

Poll shows strong support for voter ID and easier early voting



A strong majority of Americans continues to support voter ID requirements even as Democrats and mainstream media reports attack Republican-led efforts to strengthen voter ID laws as "voter suppression," according to a new poll.

On Monday, Monmouth University published the results of a survey that shows an overwhelming 80% of Americans support requiring voters to show a photo I.D. in order to vote.

The poll also found that most Americans support easier access to early voting. Americans are divided on expanding vote-by-mail, though a majority would support establishing federal guidelines for both mail-in voting and voting early.

From Monmouth:

A large majority (71%) of the public feels in-person early voting should generally be made easier. Just 16% say it should be made harder. Opinion is more divided on voting by mail – 50% say this should be made easier and 39% say it should be made harder. At the same time, fully 4 in 5 Americans (80%) support requiring voters to show photo identification in order to cast a ballot. Just 18% oppose this.

Easing in-person early voting access and requiring photo IDs both have bipartisan majority support. Approval of making early voting easier stands at 89% among Democrats, 68% among independents, and 56% among Republicans. Support for requiring a photo ID to vote stands at 62% among Democrats, 87% among independents, and 91% among Republicans. Only Democrats back making voting by mail easier to do, with 84% supporting this idea compared to just 40% of independents and 26% of Republicans.

More than 2 in 3 Americans (69%) support establishing national guidelines to allow vote-by-mail and in-person early voting in federal elections in every state. Just 25% oppose this idea. Support for establishing national voting guidelines on these issues comes from 92% of Democrats, 63% of independents, and 51% of Republicans.

"The poll contains some seemingly conflicting information on voter access. The bottom line seems to be that most Democrats and Republicans want to take the potential for election results to be questioned off the table. The problem, though, is they aren't likely to agree on how to get there," said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

In recent months after the 2020 presidential election, which was unsuccessfully contested by former President Donald Trump, several Republican-controlled legislatures in various states have attempted to pass controversial laws they say would strengthen election security. Georgia, Florida, and Texas have each adopted high profile election reforms that critics say are partisan efforts intended to restrict the ability of non-white voters from accessing the ballot. Some Democrats and media pundits have gone so far as accusing Republicans in these states of implementing "Jim Crow 2.0."

Republicans counter that the unprecedented volume of mail-in ballots requested last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic had created a possibility for voter fraud and say new laws are necessary to protect the integrity of U.S. elections at a time when many Americans believe fraud was conducted.

Despite harsh media criticism, several of the measures implemented into law by Republican states are actually popular. The maligned Georgia law, for example, expanded early voting in the state and created a requirement for mail-in ballots to be accompanied with a form of photo I.D.

The controversy over election integrity has been inflamed by Trump's repeated claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that President Joe Biden's victory in several states was illegitimate. The Monmouth poll found that nearly one-third of survey respondents believe that Biden won due to voter fraud, while a majority of 61% of Americans think the election was fair and square.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone June 9-14, with 810 adults in the United States. The question results have a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.