The latest House Democratic coronavirus bill, the offensively named HEROES Act, is a cornucopia of the progressive left’s punch list for fundamentally transforming the United States.
Nestled within the bill’s nearly 2,000 pages and among its $3 trillion is the “American Coronavirus/COVID-19 Election Safety and Security Act.” The so-called ACCESS Act is a clear and present danger to election integrity and to the sanctity of the franchise. In short, the proposal nationalizes election laws, is devoid of any election integrity protections, and sweeps aside any conflicting state election laws.
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The bill requires all states and all local election officials to come up with “contingency plans” for times of national health emergency or natural disaster. The bill gives each election supervisor 30 days to come up with his or her plan. Failure to do so subjects them to enforcement action by the U.S. and much worse, to private suits by “aggrieved parties,” aka, the American Civil Liberties Union and other leftist special interest groups who regularly swim in these waters. (These groups are already filing lawsuits from coast to coast, demanding that judges set aside any and all protection, no matter how reasonable and no matter how easily accommodated to ensure voter and poll worker health and safety.)
Regardless of existing state laws, every state would have to provide 15 days of early voting, same-day voter registration (including same-day online registration), and electronic signatures rather than actual signatures. The bill would also prohibit the use of any voter identification requirements, including photo identification or other identification documents.
The bill also has special requirements for absentee voting.
- Requires states to allow absentee voting for any reason, eliminating state laws requiring a statutorily required excuse;
- Prohibits any voter identification requirements for obtaining or casting an absentee ballot;
- Prohibits any notary or witness requirements for casting ballots;
- Limits signature verification requirements by imposing cumbersome “due process” obligations on election officials;
- Requires online absentee ballot requests and processing;
- Extends these provisions to all elections, whether conducted during an emergency or not.
Most outrageous and dangerous of all, the act requires that every voting jurisdiction mail an absentee ballot to every registered voter for the November presidential election. Just to put that in perspective, more than 30 million absentee ballots were either lost in the mail, not returned, or rejected as invalid in the 2016 election. Nearly every state in the union has voter rolls that are dreadfully out of date, containing tens of thousands of invalid addresses of individuals who have moved or died.
One need only look at the hundreds of thousands of people who have not received their stimulus checks sent weeks ago to addresses provided to the IRS in tax returns filed just last year. Delays largely result from changes in addresses. It is obvious that mailing millions of ballots to wrong addresses combined with no identification or witness verification that a voter is eligible to vote will lead to chaos. Eligible votes will be diluted, and confidence in election fairness will be lost.
Senate Republicans are calling this bill “dead on arrival.” But experience teaches that what Republicans mean is that it is “mostly dead.” Some or even many of the Democrats’ dangerous proposals may survive weak-kneed Senate opposition. But compromise is not an option when it comes to the sanctity of the ballot box.
The bill’s proper name should be the “Unauthorized ACCESS Act,” because that is what is certain to happen. House Republicans must stand firm in opposition, and the Senate must reject the bill. More importantly, American citizens should loudly protest against nationalizing election laws.
Pete Hutchison is president of Landmark Legal Foundation.
