WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — The Senate CoronaVirus Relief Bill passed by the Senate earlier this week and now under consideration in the House of Representatives provides $400 million for “emergency” changes to state's election laws, and purports to help protect the 2020 elections against the CoronaVirus Pandemic threat sweepeing the nation.
While the funding is far less than the $4 billion Democrats initially sought, the bill will also allow states to:
Expand Mail-In & Early Voting,- as well as Online Voter Registration, and
- the money could also be used to help secure "In-Person Voting Sites."
As Democrat House Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) explained last Thursday, the pandemic has created “a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.”
But since elections have not proven to be 100% effective in delivering the vision that the Democrat Party has been promoting for the last decade, whose vision would that be? Not all Americans share the same vision, which is why we have elections.
Writes Sue Becker, a litigator for the Public Interest Legal Foundation:
"By changing the election rules, the Left is setting the stage for them to never lose a presidential election again. Ever.
"The election changes proposed in what is supposed to be an emergency CoronaVirus bill are designed to destroy federalism as we know it, and nationalize federal elections.
"The 'emergency' changes to election laws violate the Constitution’s division of powers between the states and the federal government.
"The proposed changes to state laws effectively eliminate voter identification and force states to give regular ballots to those whose identities it cannot confirm," says Becker.
"They would force all states to not only offer same-day registration, but give those voters regular ballots to vote, which means that the state would have no time to verify that person’s eligibility to vote.
"The bill would also require states to register people without proof of identification via online registration, send e-ballots to anyone who requests one online without providing identification, and automatically mail ballots to every single name on the county’s registration list starting in July 2020, as well as automatically mail ballots to everyone who is no longer on the county’s registration list."
Primaries and other elections have been postponed in more than a dozen states so far because of concerns about the CoronaVirus. Several states – including Ohio, Georgia and West Virginia have announced that they will send absentee ballot applications to all registered voters so they do not have to vote in person.The package does not require states to offer 15 days of early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, and other changes some Democrats had sought.
What is needed, Becker notes, is simply an allocation of money to allow the states to initiate what possible changes they deem necessary to counter the CornonaVirus's potential impact on the 2020 Election. That is what they requested in a March 22nd letter sent to the House — not an onslaught of brand-new laws to try to enforce within 30 days.
"There is no one size fits all approach, but instead a 50-state solution," Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, and New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, wrote Wednesday in an open letter on behalf of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
"We ask Congress to recognize the necessity for flexible funding to meet each of our specific needs," the two wrote.
Democrat Senators Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Ron Wyden (OR) said in a statement they will continue to push legislation to require that states make no-excuse, mail-in voting available to all voters and to provide more early voting and other options.
"While this funding is a step in the right direction, we must enact election reforms across the country as well as secure more resources to guarantee safe and secure elections," they said.
This includes the cost of printing and mailing millions of additional mail-in ballots in the coming months.
