Former Vice President Mike Pence does not support the Democrats’ bill to reform elections, going as far as to call it an “unconstitutional power grab.”
Pence, who has been mostly silent since the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 where he was presiding over the joint session of Congress meant to certify then-President-elect Biden’s electoral victory, wrote a Wednesday op-ed for the Daily Signal, a platform associated with the Heritage Foundation, where he is a distinguished fellow.
The bill, H.R. 1, would require states to use automatic voter registration for federal elections and allow same-day voter registration, among other measures, including mandating redistricting systems.
‘ELECTION INTEGRITY’ EMERGING AS KEY PRIORITY FOR GRASSROOTS REPUBLICANS
Pence said the bill would “increase opportunities for election fraud, trample the First Amendment, and further erode confidence in our elections, and forever dilute the votes of legally qualified eligible voters,” and he claimed that it would ban “common sense measures to detect, deter, and prosecute election fraud.”
He added that the Democrats’ push for election overhaul is to “give leftists a permanent, unfair, and unconstitutional advantage in our political system,” calling it an “unconstitutional, reckless, and anti-democratic bill.”
The former vice president did call election reform “imperative” but said it must be done “at the state level” due to the Constitution.
A version of the bill passed the House in the last Congress and is set to do so again this week.
Pence’s comments come during an ongoing debate regarding election integrity in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. While Biden’s victory was projected days after the election took place in November, then-President Donald Trump, his campaign, and many of his allies filed dozens of lawsuits seeking to overturn the results through the courts. In one claim, they alleged some states unconstitutionally changed their election laws prior to the general vote.
Trump and other GOP members also repeated a handful of conspiracy theories, which likely spurred a lack of voter confidence in the results.
“After an election marked by significant voting irregularities and numerous instances of officials setting aside state election law, I share the concerns of millions of Americans about the integrity of the 2020 election,” Pence wrote. “That’s why when I was serving as presiding officer at the joint session of Congress certifying the Electoral College results, I pledged to ensure that all objections properly raised under the Electoral Count Act would be given a full hearing before Congress and the American people.”
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“The tragic events of Jan. 6 — the most significant being the loss of life and violence at our nation’s Capitol — also deprived the American people of a substantive discussion in Congress about election integrity in America,” he said. “Many of the most troubling voting irregularities took place in states that set aside laws enacted by state legislatures in favor of sweeping changes ordered by governors, secretaries of state, and courts.”
Despite the claims, Trump’s Attorney General, William Barr, said the Justice Department did not found evidence of extensive voter fraud that could’ve created a different outcome in the 2020 presidential race.
As of last month, 43 states have carried over, pre-filed, or introduced a total of 253 bills that would restrict voting access, while there have been 704 bills with provisions that would expand voting rights in a different set of 43 states, according to the Brennan Center, a nonpartisan law and policy institute.
