This was a vote on a bill to overhaul the U.S. election system, H.R. 1, the “For the People Act.”

This bill, introduced by House Democrats as their first legislative act after taking control of the House of Representatives in 2018, was sold as an extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In reality, it is designed to help Democrats get elected, protect incumbent politicians, and attack free speech.

Even the ACLU, a champion of left-leaning causes, believes H.R. 1 is unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. Restrictions on lobbying written by Democrats are so broad that according to the civil liberties group, a former government official would be prohibited by law from speaking to a senior government policymaker in any agency for up to eight years. Further, the bill empowers the Federal Election Commission to keep track of even small political donations and would require 501(c)(4) charity organizations to publicly release their donor lists, violating the privacy of every American. It also changes the structure of the FEC from a neutral body to be a 3-2 majority body, which would create partisan outcomes in election regulation disputes.

The bill centralizes power in Washington D.C., by micromanaging state elections with a policy called “preclearance.” The policy requires state governments to get permission from the Swamp to make small changes to their election process like moving a polling place or instituting voter ID and would overturn a Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder to do so.

Additionally, the bill would restore voting rights to convicted felons, even to felons convicted of voter intimidation and child rape, and according to the Conservative Action Project, the bill also:

• Forces states to implement mandatory voter registration, removing civic participation as a voluntary choice, and increasing chances for error.

• Mandates that states allow all felons to vote.

• Forces states to extend periods of early voting, which has shown to have no effect on turnout.

• Mandates same-day voter registration, which encourages voter fraud.

• Limits the ability of states to cooperate to see who is registered in multiple states at the same time.

• Prohibits election observers from cooperating with election officials to file formal challenges to suspicious voter registrations.

• Criminalizes protected political speech by making it a crime to “discourage” someone from voting

• Bars states from making their own laws about voting by mail.

• Prohibits chief election officials in each state from participating in federal election campaigns.

• Mandates free mailing of absentee ballots.

• Mandates that states adopt new redistricting commissions.

Conservatives believe in preserving constitutional protections for free speech and oppose centralizing power in Washington D.C. This bill, which would undermine First Amendment protections and weaken the American election system by encouraging voter fraud to benefit one political party over the other, is inherently un-American and certainly not conservative.

The House of Reprsentatives voted to pass the For the People Act on March 8, 2019 at 11:21 a.m. in a roll call vote of 234 – 193.

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CR position: NO