Democratic voting bill would make
biggest changes in decades
Associated Press,
by
Brian Slodysko
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
3/1/2021 9:12:29 AM
WASHINGTON— As Congress begins debate this week on sweeping voting and ethics legislation, Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing: If signed into law, it would usher in the biggest overhaul of U.S. elections law in at least a generation. House Resolution 1, Democrats’ 791-page bill, would touch virtually every aspect of the electoral process — striking down hurdles to voting erected in the name of election security, curbing partisan gerrymandering and curtailing the influence of big money in politics. Republicans see those very measures as threats that would both limit the power of states to conduct elections and ultimately benefit Democrats, notably with higher turnout among minority voters.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
bpl40 3/1/2021 9:32:21 AM (No. 711259)
Decades?? It will put paid to the Great Experiment in Liberty launched in 1776.
14 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
justavoter 3/1/2021 9:43:05 AM (No. 711273)
The Democrats Bill is totally un-Constitutional, but oh, I forgot, we have that Supreme Court issue.
21 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Nimby 3/1/2021 9:47:10 AM (No. 711282)
To follow up on #2- Textualists!! They would not know text if the constitution hit them in the face
s/o
9 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
PChristopher 3/1/2021 9:47:33 AM (No. 711283)
#2 is right, the SCOTUS is majority gutless now.
17 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
seamusm 3/1/2021 9:52:59 AM (No. 711295)
As we just learned, state law rules even in regards to national elections. But, yes, we must learn to intimidate judges as well as the Dims do.
14 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
padiva 3/1/2021 10:26:30 AM (No. 711335)
What about the 10th Amendment?
9 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
downnout 3/1/2021 10:27:02 AM (No. 711336)
If it takes 791 pages, it’s a boondoggle.
19 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
smaricic 3/1/2021 10:29:00 AM (No. 711338)
I propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I hope some Republican office holder will take these ideas and run with them:
Section 1. All in-person elections for federal offices shall be restricted to four consecutive days ending with the first Tuesday in November. All ballots must be received by official voting places by 11:59 PM that Tuesday night, with the exception of absentee ballots that are lawfully cast by uniformed service members, their family members, or American citizens visiting foreign countries (those three classes of ballots shall have one more week to arrive at official voting places).
Section 2. Each state and district shall clean up voter registration lists no later than one month prior to the start of the election. All deceased voters and all voters who have moved out of the relevant state or district shall be removed from said voter registration lists. No voter shall be permitted to register in more than one state; nor shall any voter be permitted to register more than once within any state.
Section 3. Any voter who wants to vote by absentee ballot must request said ballot in advance, and must show legitimate reasons for absentee balloting. There shall be no mass mailings of ballots to people who have not requested them.
Section 4. Ballot harvesting shall not be permitted in any federal election. Drop boxes for ballots shall be permitted only inside police departments and county election offices, and these boxes shall be monitored by adequate video systems.
Section 5. The cost of holding federal elections shall be shared among the federal government, the states, and local governments. No non-governmental entities may pay for the operation of federal elections; nor may they pay for the operation of any state and local elections that are intertwined with those federal elections.
Section 6. Only citizens of the United States of America may vote in federal elections. Photo IDs shall be required for all voting, and these shall be provided free of charge by the relevant state or district. All mail-in or absentee ballots must be accompanied by a legible copy of the voter's photo ID, and these copies shall be provided free of charge by the relevant state or district.
Section 7. Partisan poll watchers have the right to check signatures, addresses, and photo IDs of all voters, to check all markings on all ballots, and to monitor the counting, tallying, and reporting of all votes; all such monitoring shall be conducted from a distance which they, the poll watchers, are comfortable with. All vote counting centers shall have adequate video monitoring of all registering, counting, tallying and reporting of votes.
Section 8. All voting places shall use error-proof systems to register, count, tally, and report the votes. No such system shall be used in any federal election unless it is approved by the Federal Election Commission and by the legislature of the relevant state or district. No computers, equipment, software, or ballots shall be used which are not made in the United States of America by companies owned and operated by American citizens. All such systems must be backed up with paper ballots which can be easily read by the voter, and easily counted and re-counted. No voting systems shall be connected at any time to the internet, or accessible by foreign entities. No software and no software updates shall be used unless these have been approved by the Federal Election Commission and by the legislature of the relevant state or district. All systems, software, and software updates shall be transparent to all parties. All voting systems must insure that no one can trace which voter voted for which candidate.
Section 9. A nationwide system shall be set up by the Federal Election Commission to check that no voter has voted more than once in the same election, or that any voter's vote has been counted more than once.
Section 10. No official vote counts from any state or district shall be released to the press or the public until 8 PM Pacific time on that Tuesday night.
Section 11. All candidates have the right to demand a recount for any federal election if the margin between the leading candidate and the requesting candidate is less than 2 percent of the total vote for that office. Candidates have two weeks after the election to make such a request.
Section 12. All ballots (used and unused), all electronic tabulation materials, all voting logs, and all video evidence must be kept secure for 22 months after the election, and all such materials shall be made available for inspection by all candidates free of charge. All states and districts shall ensure a chain of custody of all such ballots, materials, logs, and video evidence.
Section 13. All state and district legislatures shall go into special session on the Wednesday before any election for federal office, and they shall remain in session for at least one month, in order to ensure and determine the fairness of the election process and the accuracy of the results.
Section 14. The Federal Election Commission shall be expanded from six members to seven. All members of that Commission shall resign on March 1 of all odd-numbered years, at which time seven new members shall be appointed, one by the Speaker of the House, one by the House Minority Leader, one by the Senate Majority Leader, one by the Senate Minority Leader, one by the President of the United States, one by the Chief Justice of the United States, and one by the oldest current Governor among all of the states. If any vacancies happen by the resignation or death of a member, or otherwise, that vacancy shall be filled by an appointment by the current holder of the office which originally appointed that member. The FEC shall be empowered to investigate all claims of voting irregularities, voter fraud, or voter suppression in federal elections, and to make judgements as to the acceptability of voting systems; they shall have subpoena power to help them carry out their investigations.
Section 15. The United States Congress and the state and district legislatures shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
8 people like this.
Let's not get caught in the latches game in the courts. This is clearly unconstitutional. It need to be in the courts the day it is signed into law, if it ever is. Maybe Powell, Wood and Rudy will do the honors...
4 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
thomthomp 3/1/2021 11:21:05 AM (No. 711397)
I'd like to propose a law that all bills in Congress must be personally hand written by the Congress persons themselves. That might put an end to these zillion page monstrosities that no one reads before passing into law.
The Constitution is only four pages long and it defined the greatest government designed by man.
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Kafka2 3/1/2021 12:07:44 PM (No. 711441)
The proposed bill would implement changes that the 2005 Clinton-Baker Commission said NOT to do because they would destroy the integrity of elections. The changes would eliminate identification and verification of voters to insure that their ballots are legal. Mail-in ballots (sent out to addresses like junk mail), vote harvesting, and drop boxes are open invitations to ballot box stuffing.
4 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Chuzzles 3/1/2021 12:11:20 PM (No. 711446)
If this passes, they need to rename the country the United States of Oregon, for we have been unable to toss the shackles of fraud since 1986 in our state. This needs to be fought with every ounce of energy and fury we can muster folks. For our side was right, it is all about making future elections useless and one sided to the democrats. Don't let them finish the steal of our nation.
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
bighambone 3/1/2021 12:26:04 PM (No. 711455)
So Trump claimed that there was substantial ballot and election fraud in the November election that caused him to loose that election. With the federal courts refusing to hear Trump’s claim. That in no way means that fraud did not occur.
2 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
DCGIRL 3/1/2021 12:58:35 PM (No. 711483)
#2 is correct. The bill is not in line with our constitution. When did that matter to the democrats and justices.
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
GoodDeal 3/1/2021 1:06:33 PM (No. 711490)
Totally unconstitutional. But to hell with the Constitution full speed backwards.
3 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
bigfatslob 3/1/2021 1:36:41 PM (No. 711520)
The [r]epublicans need to sign that 791 page monstrosity bill to see what's in it I suppose. This is democrat insurance policy bill that will insure the dems remain in power forever that what it is.
1 person likes this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
anniebc 3/1/2021 7:56:10 PM (No. 711794)
The states do not have to obey anything that comes out of Washington concerning elections. It's as simple as that.
1 person likes this.
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