WEEKLY POLL: Election Security

After both the 2016 and the 2020 elections, many of you expressed concerns about the safety and security of our elections. This week, The House of Representatives votes on a bill that would massively and fundamentally change the American electoral system: H.R. 1.

At its core, H.R. 1 federalizes elections. Instead of states controlling their systems, a federal bureaucracy would manage our elections moving forward. Furthermore, H.R. 1 would funnel your hard-earned dollars to political campaigns to pay for attack ads, phone calls, and ads on social media for candidates you don’t support. It creates a 6:1 government match to any small donor contributions of $200 or less in a congressional or presidential campaign, meaning for every $200, the federal government will match $1,200 using corporate dollars.

H.R. 1 also eliminates a seat on the independent Federal Election Commission (FEC), changing the makeup from six seats to five seats, creating a partisan majority. As a result, a partisan controlled FEC would enforce campaign finance law in every election in the United States. As if this were not problematic enough, HR 1 proposes even more controversial changes:

• H.R. 1 limits states from maintaining the integrity of voter rolls, preventing states from removing voters who have moved or passed away.
• H.R. 1 automatically registers 16- and 17-year olds to vote, despite the US voting age being 18.
• H.R. 1 makes permanent nationwide no-excuse mail-in voting, repeating the issues we saw in 2020.
• While massively expanding absentee voting, H.R. 1 simultaneously prohibits states from requiring absentee voters identify themselves.
• H.R. 1 requires states to allow ballot harvesting.

To me, this bill seems like several steps in the wrong direction. But I want to hear from you: