After failing to orchestrate a federal takeover of state election administration two years ago, Democrats are back with their newest strategy to seize control of America’s electoral process.
In blue state legislatures, leftists are working to advance election bills that seek to dramatically overhaul state elections by enshrining Democrat-backed voting practices into law. The widespread effort is an attempt to implement national Democrats’ HR 1 policies in states across the country.
Deceptively labeled the “For the People Act,” HR 1 was a bill supported by congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden during the early months of 2021. The legislation was a concentrated bid by Democrats to cement many of the unsecure practices used throughout the 2020 election into federal law and allow the federal government to oversee and control the electoral process.
The measure’s many changes to election administration include provisions effectively banning voter ID requirements, mandating universal mail-in balloting, and legalizing widespread use of ballot drop boxes, among others. The bill furthermore violates core provisions of the Constitution, such as the Elections Clause of Article I and the Electors Clause of Article II, which stipulate that the states, not the federal government, are tasked with administering and overseeing elections.
While House Democrats managed to pass HR 1, Senate Republicans effectively killed the measure once it arrived in the upper chamber. In typical hyperbolic fashion, Biden — legacy media’s so-called “unifer-in-chief” — proceeded to accuse the Senate GOP of supporting a “Jim Crow era” of voter suppression for opposing his party’s takeover of state election administration.
Blue States Barrel Ahead
With Republican control of the House of Representatives nullifying HR 1’s prospects of passage for at least the next two years, Democrats at the state level have taken it upon themselves to advance some of the bill’s core objectives in their respective legislatures.
In New Mexico, where Democrats enjoy trifecta control, leftist politicos are working to ram through HB 4 before the end of the 2023 legislative session. The measure seeks to expand the use of mail-in voting by creating a “voluntary permanent absentee voter list,” where county clerks “automatically send a mailed ballot to the mailing address listed on [a voter’s registration certificate] each time there is a statewide election that includes [his] precinct.” Use of such a system closely mirrors lax no-excuse absentee voting and “indefinite confinement” rules that Democrats popularized around the country under the guise of the Covid “emergency” to the detriment of election integrity.
Additionally, the bill also aims to expand the use of ballot drop boxes by requiring counties to have a minimum of two boxes within their jurisdiction. It furthermore includes a provision permitting convicted felons to register to vote after getting out of prison but before completing parole or probation. (Prior analyses have shown most convicts register as Democrats rather than Republicans).
“HB 4 is far worse than anything we’ve seen before,” Carla Sonntag, the founder and CEO of New Mexico Business Coalition and Better Together New Mexico, told The Federalist. “Even though proof of citizenship is supposed to be required to vote, the automatic registration mandate includes New Mexico ‘residents’ who may not be here legally. And since New Mexico provides driver’s licenses for nonresidents, this mandate significantly increases the likelihood of non-U.S. citizens being registered to vote.”
The bill was recently passed by the state’s House of Representatives (41-26) and now heads to the Senate for approval.
Further north, Minnesota Democrats have also been busy concocting their own takeover of state and local election administration since taking trifecta control of the state government in the 2022 midterms. Among the bevy of Democrat election bills put forward this legislative session is HF 3, which would create an automatic voter registration system and allow Minnesota residents as young as 16 years old to pre-register to vote. The legislature’s consideration of the measure comes in addition to the body’s recent passage of HF 4, which if signed by Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, would give illegal aliens the ability to obtain a driver’s license.
Another radical piece of election-related legislation put forward by Minnesota Democrats is HF 28, which, much like New Mexico’s HB 4, would allow convicted felons to vote once released from prison but prior to parole or probation. The measure successfully passed the House and Senate and now heads to the desk of Walz, who is expected to sign it into law.
Other states where Democrats are advancing leftist-backed election policies include Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, among others.
What This Means
Whether it’s granting voting rights to illegal aliens and convicted felons, pushing expansive and unsupervised mail-in voting, or pre-registering individuals younger than 18 to vote, the end goal of Democrats’ push to overhaul state and local election administration is fairly obvious. As their embrace of radical leftism continues to further alienate the blue-collar workers who once comprised their electoral base, Democrats are seeking to give voting access to demographics they view as favorable to their party at the ballot box.
While legacy media will promote these legislative efforts as a heroic bid by Democrats to “expand voting rights” to so-called disenfranchised groups, Americans should be aware that such rhetoric is designed to obfuscate the true nature of the left’s bid to hijack the country’s elections to the benefit of the Democrat Party. For Democrats, it’s not about fairness or equal access to the ballot box, but maintaining government power and control through any means necessary.
Such actions should serve as a wake-up call for everyday Americans to embrace the country’s federalist system and become involved in state and local politics. Some of the most important issues of our time, including election integrity, are being debated in state legislatures throughout the country and deserve the attention of an active citizenry. Failure to meet the moment will result in the left’s continued stampede for power to go unchecked, leaving American society — and our elections —ripe for government abuse.