OPINION:
Good on Sen. Joe Machin for reportedly blowing up President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, which would saddle the U.S. economy with $3 trillion of debt over 10 years and add to already sky-high inflation.
Now, with gargantuan spending package in limbo, it’s been reported Senate Democrats will renew their focus on federalizing local elections — or in their view, advance bills to “protect democracy.” To do so, they’re once again eyeing changing the Senate’s filibuster rule, which has allowed Republicans to block previous Democratic efforts to deride state election integrity efforts.
This, too, is a misguided effort.
Despite Democrat hysteria, November’s elections ran smoothly in states that passed election integrity laws.
Election Day was a breeze in Georgia, where Democrats lied about SB202, comparing the election law to “Jim Crow 2.0,” which led to multiple corporate boycotts, including pulling the World Series from Atlanta. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that voters saw “short lines,” “few problems” and no “obstacles to the polls.”
In Florida, for the congressional special election in Broward and Palm Beach counties, election officials reported “smooth” voting and no issues related to the state’s new election law, despite Democrats trying to smear SB90, again, as “Jim Crow.”
Of the 19 states the left-wing Brennan Center for Justice said have implemented election integrity measures, 17 held elections last November, and none reported any major election issues.
Moreover, voters favor strengthening election laws — making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.
In New York, two statewide ballot measures that sought to eliminate provisions of the state constitution that prevented same-day voter registration and universal vote-by-mail failed. Neither measure received more than 45% of the vote.
By a wide margin, Americans support common-sense reforms to secure elections. According to a poll released this summer from the Honest Elections Project, support for voter ID laws has risen 13 percentage points among Black Americans and stands at 81% among all voters.
A survey by One Nation found Americans “already believe voting in their area is ‘easy’ and want the main objective of any [election] reforms to focus on making sure elections are ‘fair and free of voter fraud’ over ‘making it easier for as many people as possible to vote.’” The results weren’t even close; voters felt this way by a 33-point margin.
Unlike what Democrats are proposing — a federal takeover of state elections — 68% of voters believe that state legislatures should decide voting rules and regulations for their state, not the federal government.
States should enact common-sense measures to protect the integrity of elections, such as presenting voter ID, signature verification, chain of custody controls, bipartisan observers and cleaning up voter rolls.
Election integrity is vital to preserving our democracy.
The Senate Democrats’ renewed focus on dismantling state laws is nothing but another federal power-grab that is out of touch with the American public’s wishes.
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