The Patriot Post® · HR 1 Makes Election Fraud & Chaos Permanent
If you liked the dozens of post-election lawsuits, the ballot recounts and audits, and the utter chaos and anger that prevailed after the 2020 elections, then you’ll absolutely love the Democrats’ top legislative priority this year — passage of HR 1, the ludicrously named “For the People Act.” Reintroduced again this year, this leftist initiative is an attempt to codify into law what Mark Alexander calls “The Left’s Bulk-Mail Ballot Fraud Strategy,” ensuring Democrat Party dominance in elections from here to eternity.
By a 220-210 vote, Democrats (and no Republicans) passed the 791-page HR 1 Wednesday.
Veteran political analyst John Fund notes: “There is a reason Nancy Pelosi has called her 791-page bill, stuffed as it is with her favorite election-related changes, House of Representatives Bill Number 1 or HR 1. It’s that important to her. She has convinced or pressured every single House Democrat to co-sponsor… Should the power grab masquerading as HR 1 become law it will represent only the latest distortion of democracy. It will undermine confidence in the system far more than anything Donald Trump attempted.”
As Alexander observed, “The number of bulk-mail ballots skyrocketed to more than 65 million in 2020, 65% of the 101 million early votes cast — and that total was the equivalent of 73% of all votes cast (136.6 million) in 2016.”
It’s a massive power grab by Democrats that takes the worst aspects of the 2020 elections and puts them into federal law. Democrats aim to dictate from Capitol Hill election law for every single state, county, and city. HR 1 intentionally weakens election security, creating the very lawlessness and discord that made the last election such a nightmare and guaranteeing that it’s the norm for all future elections.
For example, HR 1 would greatly expand mail-in voting, despite election officials warning that mail-in voting fraud is “vastly more prevalent than the in-person voting fraud.” The CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project advised states to end mail-in voting because of the “significant cost to the real and perceived integrity of the voting process.” Even The New York Times admits mail-in balloting not only makes it “much easier” to buy and sell votes but also makes voters, especially elderly voters, vulnerable to fraud, threats, and coercion.
In many states that vote by mail, registered voters are automatically mailed a ballot. Yet these states tend to have poorly maintained voter rolls that have not been updated to exclude those who have died or moved, making it child’s play to illegally cast a ballot in ways that appear legal. In California, it took a lawsuit by watchdog Judicial Watch to force California to begin removing more than five million ineligible voters from state rolls.
The bill would also force states to accept mail-in ballots for 10 days after Election Day.
Even worse, HR 1 opens the floodgates of election fraud by prohibiting virtually any effort to verify that a vote is being legally cast and that the voter is who he says he is. Democrats don’t even try to hide their Machiavellian machinations; they openly display them.
HR 1 declares, “A state may not require an individual to provide any form of identification as a condition of obtaining an absentee ballot. … A state(s) may not require notarization or a witness signature or other formal authentication (other than voter attestation) as a condition of obtaining or casting an absentee ballot.”
Such an action isn’t about eliminating unnecessary obstacles to voting. It is actively encouraging millions of illegally cast votes while making it impossible to verify which ballots are legal and which are illegal.
HR 1 would also nationalize the practice of ballot harvesting, where political operatives are allowed to go around collecting ballots from voters by the thousands and get paid for it. Ballot harvesting opens up voters to threats and coercion, and there is also no way to know if a ballot harvester decided to throw away collected ballots from an area where the opposing party is stronger.
HR 1 also forces states to accept same-day voter registration and voting, as well as a minimum of 15 days of early voting. State bureaucracies would be required to register people to vote who appear in other government records, automatically registering to vote anyone who applies for a driver’s license, food stamps, etc.
The bill requires states to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to register, and, without voter ID, perhaps to actually cast ballots.
Additionally, the law would force states to allow felons to cast ballots for federal races unless they are currently imprisoned. Imagine the nightmare for election officials who must figure out how to allow felons to vote in federal races while ensuring they don’t vote in state and local races on the same ballot.
HR 1 also politicizes the Federal Election Commission by doing away with the longstanding nonpartisan format of six members, evenly divided by party, with the requirement that the chairman and vice chair be of opposite parties. Under the Democrats’ new bill, the FEC would become a highly partisan, five-member organization controlled by the White House. This newly hyper-partisan federal agency would wield vast power over the political speech, actions, and donations of tens of millions of American citizens, with the practical result being a silencing of the opposing political party.
The bill also provides for a 6-to-1 federal (read: “taxpayer-funded”) matching of small-dollar donations to candidates, meaning a candidate that receives $200 from a donor would get another $1,200 from the taxpayers, even if the taxpayers would not have willingly donated to the candidate themselves. Since the law also allows candidates to pay themselves salaries, bonuses, and personal expenses from campaign funds, this incentivizes corrupt individuals to run for office with the sole intent to make money.
For four years, starting in 2016, Democrats relentlessly claimed President Donald Trump’s victory was the result of election fraud, mainly from alleged Russian collusion that never happened.
Today, Republicans are angry and distrustful because they saw state election laws unilaterally and illegally changed in 2020, using COVID-19 as an excuse. Now, even a large plurality of independents and Democrats believe Joe Biden was not legitimately elected.
The net result is that, in the last five years, the vast majority of Americans have expressed distrust in our nation’s elections.
As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently stated, “We cannot keep trending toward a future where Americans’ confidence in elections is purely a function of which side won.”
By facilitating massive voter fraud and eliminating ballot security, a total loss of confidence in our election system is not just probable but inevitable. But in the Democrats’ plan, voter fraud and rigged elections aren’t a bug; they’re a feature.
(Updated.)