For the People Act – A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Fox News contributor, Hans von Spakovsky, wrote an article enumerating the worst tenants of HR-1, an 800-page bill deceptively called “For the People Act” that arrived on the floor of the House of Representatives after a party-line vote. The bill seeks to reform election laws throughout the U.S., but this in and of itself goes against our Constitution since each state is responsible for its own elections. 
 
Here are some of the problems which Mr. Spakovsky points out in his article:
 
1. States would be denied their power to enforce voter ID authentication and the Federal Government would mandate same-day voter registration. Under this law, anyone could walk into a polling place, register on the spot under any name they wished and sign a document claiming they are who they say they are without any proof of identification. There’d be no central tracking of the voter, so that person could go from polling place to polling place and repeat the process that same day as many times as he wished.
 
2. HR-1 restricts state governments from ensuring the accuracy of voter rolls; states would be blocked from comparing their voter rolls with those of other states or with the US Postal Service’s National Change of Address System to clean up the rolls of individuals who have since died or moved away.
 
3. States would be required to register their citizens any time they interact with state agencies, such as welfare offices, the Department of Motor Vehicles, or even federal agencies, which could lead to multiple registrations for a single individual as well as for non-citizens.
 
4. States would be required to allow online voter registrations, opening up the likelihood for voter fraud.
 
5. The Internal Revenue Service would be authorized to investigate policies of nonprofit organizations when they apply for tax-exempt status. We saw that happen during the Obama Administration when many politically conservative organizations were denied tax-exempt status.
 
6. Public funding programs would be set up for candidates running for Congress, so taxpayers would be forced to fund candidates with whom they strongly disagree.
 
The “For the People Act” sounds like something that would benefit our nation’s citizens, but it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and, as former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee suggests, should be renamed the “In Support of Vote Fraud Act.” It has nothing to do with making things better “for the people” and everything to do with enabling corrupt backroom party politics. But if you give a horrible bill an altruistic title, there will be enough uneducated people who will assume the bill is there to help “the People.” After all, how could anyone be against something that is for the people?
 
Over 200 years ago, our Founding Fathers gave us a fail-safe election system where each state has jurisdiction over its own government and election process– a system that could not be influenced by a central government or the party in control of that government.
 
With our current election laws under the Constitution, if anyone wants to challenge the election process of a state, it is up to the state to investigate– not the federal government.
 
Our election process rests at the very heart of our Constitution and when a central government sticks its nose where it doesn’t belong, it’s time to be watchful. It’s also time to beware when “election officials” bar the doors to sanctioned observers, telling them to "shut up and get out; there’s nothing here to see.”
 
State governments play a unique role in our system of government, and our state legislatures are not only responsible for maintaining the integrity of our elections, they are duty-bound to call an Article V convention of states when the federal government exceeds its mandate. We must all get involved. The time is now!