Biden’s Executive Order is clearly an attempt at a federal takeover of our elections. We must call on states to safeguard state constitutional authority to conduct their elections free of federal interference!
Demand state elected officials establish laws to protect against
federal interference in state elections, call for a full investigation
and disclosure of all federal agency budget, training, and
engagement in election related activities in every state. Defend
the Hatch Act and stop federal engagement in partisan voter
registration and voter turnout activities!
Excerpts from Mollie Hemmingway’s Article Below:
The White House is refusing to share details about its coordinated efforts to engage in a federal takeover of election administration.
President Biden really does not want the public to know about his
federal takeover of election administration.
Dozens of members of Congress have repeatedly asked for details, to no avail. Good government groups, members of the media, and private citizens have filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Not a single one has been responded to. All signs indicate a concerted effort to keep the public in the dark until at least after the November midterm elections. The lack of transparency and responsiveness is so bad that the Department of Justice and some of its agencies have been repeatedly sued for the information.
When President Biden ordered all 600 federal agencies to
“expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process” on March 7, 2021, Republican politicians, Constitutional scholars, and election integrity specialists began to worry exactly what was up his sleeve. Biden gave each agency 200 days to file their plans for approval.
Mobilizing Voters Is Always a Political Act
There are several major problems with Biden’s secret plan, critics say.
- It’s unethical to tie federal benefits to election activity.
- It’s unconstitutional to have the federal government take
authority that belongs to the states and which Congress
has not granted.
- And, given that all 50 states have different laws and
processes governing election administration, it’s a recipe
for chaos, confusion, and fraud at a time when election
security concerns are particularly fraught.
Choosing which groups to target for Get Out The Vote efforts is one of the most important activities done by political campaigns. Federal agencies that interact with the public by doling out benefits can easily pressure recipients to vote for particular candidates and positions. Congress passed the Hatch Act in 1939, which bans bureaucrats and bureaucracies from being involved in election activities after Democrats used Works Progress Administration programs and personnel for partisan political advantage.
Executive Order 14019 ignores that the Constitution does not give the executive branch authority over elections. That power is reserved for the states, with a smaller role for Congress. With H.R. 1 and other Democrat Party efforts to grab more control over elections have thus far failed, Congress hasn’t authorized such an expansion.
Leftist Groups Know Exactly What’s Going On
Conservatives may be in the dark, but left-wing activist groups are fully involved in the plot. The left-wing dark money group Demos put out press releases immediately after the executive order was issued, saying it would be happy to work with federal agencies on the project. And then the group admitted publicly that it “organized agency-based working groups and met with the staff in these agencies to provide technical expertise as they developed their initial voter registration plans, to ensure those plans reflect the knowledge and priorities of various agency stakeholders.” It also admits it “developed research and resources to assist and advance agency efforts to implement robust voter registration opportunities, including a slide deck explainer of the agencies’ potential for impact, best practices for conducting voter registration at federal agencies, and recommendations for modernizing and improving the accessibility of Vote.gov.”
What We Know
While the White House and agencies are steadfastly refusing to share details about how they’re complying with the executive order, who they met with to develop their plans, or how they’re justifying their involvement in something Congress has not authorized them to participate in, some details are trickling out. Here are a few examples of the widespread and coordinated effort by Biden’s political appointees to meddle in the state administration of elections.
- The Department of Labor boasted that it was turning 2,300 American Job Centers previously focused on helping displaced workers find jobs into hubs of political activism. These new federally funded voter registration agencies were given guidance about how to bring in organizations to conduct “voter outreach.”
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services likewise announced plans to turn community health centers into voter registration agencies, using thousands of health care facilities to focus on voter registration and turnout.
- The Housing and Urban Development Department sent notice to public housing (disproportionately Democrat) authorities that they should begin voter registration drives and participation activities.
- The Department of Education sent letters to universities, telling them that Federal Work Study funds could now be used to support voter registration activities
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it’s using its child nutrition programs to push voter registration and enlisting state, local, and federally funded employees to implement voter registration drives in local schools.
- The Commerce Department produced a massive, 113-page report directs local voting board members about polling stations and poll worker training.
