FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 21, 2021
Contact: Prudence Robertson, probertson@sbalist.org (240) 672-2828
Washington, D.C. – Last week, Senate Democrats introduced the so-called “Freedom to Vote Act” (S. 2747), legislation that would override state election laws. Misleadingly publicized as a “compromise” by the media, the legislation is the Democrats’ latest attempt to force a partisan power grab into law, like H.R. 1 and H.R. 4.
“The new Freedom to Vote Act retains significant portions of the For the People Act,” The Washington Post reports.
This legislation would effectively abolish voter I.D. protections, force states to register illegal aliens to vote, erode election safeguards enacted by many states – making it nearly impossible to detect fraud – while mandating unsecure and unverifiable absentee voting practices, overriding voter roll maintenance laws, and dramatically altering First Amendment protections by imposing unnecessary and unworkable regulatory standards.
National Chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued the following statement:
“They’re at it again—Democrats have unveiled yet another new, deceptively named bill, but they’re still attempting to force the same dangerous provisions and partisan objectives on the American people. This bill appears intended to destroy voter integrity, and in fact, children in West Virginia would need more identification to fish than adults need to vote should this bill pass. Not only would this bill force states to register illegal aliens and non-citizens (and 16-year-olds) to vote, but it would remove penalties for such illegal voting and threaten state officials with criminal liability if they don’t play along—cancelling out millions of American votes and disenfranchising legal voters! The reality is that voter integrity protects the right to vote and have one’s ballot counted fairly and openly. But for some reason, Democrats want to undermine this integrity.
“Secure, transparent, and accountable elections voters can trust can’t be accomplished by stripping away voting safeguards. We ask Senate Democrats to reconsider their course, and we urge Republicans to stand strong against intense left-wing pressure and reject the Democrats’ power grab. Today it is easier to register and vote than ever before in our history, regardless of where you live, your race, or party affiliation. We should be celebrating this as a great accomplishment, while always looking to improve, but for the left this bill has nothing to do with their manufactured myth of ‘voter suppression’, and everything to do with the politics of preserving their power.”
S. 2747 would subject citizens who contribute to nonprofit organizations to harassment and intimidation by making their personal information available in a government-controlled data base, and through an expansion of the definition of “electioneering communications,” it would subject virtually all issue-related ads to burdensome disclaimer requirements even if unrelated to a candidate for elected office.
Recent national polls show the majority of voters, including Black and Hispanic voters, as well as urban and independent voters, overwhelmingly support voter I.D. protections and want it to be easy to vote and hard to cheat.
The Election Transparency Initiative, a partnership between American Principles Project (APP) and the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), was organized to combat H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 and advocate for state-based election reforms that voters can trust.
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