Dear Friends— Last week, House Democrats passed H.R. 1, legislation masked as voter and election reform. Unfortunately, what you won’t hear in the news is that included in this bill are some of the most dangerous and unconstitutional changes to our election system that we have ever seen. Although this bill is deceptively named “For the People Act”, nothing could be further from truth.
Our elections are sacred and we must do everything in our power to protect them and keep them safe from foreign governments, criminal individuals and hackers. This legislation does nothing to keep our elections more safe or fair. It is a partisan attempt to change the process to benefit one political party over the other.
I’d like to explain a little more about some of these changes and what they could mean to you.
Here are just a few of the many provisions within H.R. 1:
- Creates a “one size fits all” federally mandated approach to our election laws- forcing states to surrender their autonomy
- Allows for voter registration with no identification and for online registration; this would open the door to the potential for massive voter fraud schemes at the fingertips of criminals.
- The bill would restore voting rights to individuals convicted of a felony, no matter how heinous the crime- potentially allowing those who are convicted of voter fraud and voter intimidation to vote in our elections.
- Prevents election officials from verifying voter eligibility
- Permits underage voters to register and officials will be unable to determine if they are eligible to vote or not.
- Publicly finances elections by creating a 6 to 1 government match. This means that the government is giving your tax money to politicians so they can run more advertisements.
- Allows candidates to use campaign contributions on themselves.
- Infringes on the free speech rights of Americans and organizations by putting compliance and administrative restrictions on certain groups, citizens and non-profits.
This is just a sampling of the things the Democrats have put into this legislation. To learn more about some of the other changes please click here.
Democrats rushed to get a vote on this reckless piece of legislation and even some of my colleagues across the aisle have expressed concerns with what was included. Serious reforms to our election process deserve a deliberate and thoughtful process, and this bill is the opposite.
H.R. 1 is so damaging, that the far left-leaning ACLU opposes it because of concerns it infringes on our basic right of freedom of speech.
I do not believe the federal government should tell Texas how our elections should be run.
I also do not believe that we should infringe upon our Constitutional rights and give politicians your hard-earned tax dollars to subsidize their lives.
This is nothing but an attempt by Democrats to use underhanded tactics to win more elections.
You sent me to Washington to bring positive change to our community, our state and our nation-- You also sent me to make sure that we work to stop thoughtless and poorly written pieces of legislation like H.R. 1.
As always, please feel free to contact our Washington, DC and Fort Worth office with any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Kay Granger
Member of Congress