House Democrats on Friday passed a voting rights and campaign finance reform bill to overhaul the nation’s election process, a bill Republicans say amounts to a federal power grab.
The bill passed the House along party lines in a 234-193 vote, and now heads to the GOP-led Senate, where Republican leaders have pledged to let it die.
The wide-ranging legislation would expand voter registration and ease voter ID requirements while bolstering campaign finance disclosure regulations that Democrats have long tried to increase. Voters would be automatically registered when they receive a driver’s license and paper ballots would be required in all elections.
It would also end state control over redistricting and hand it to newly created federal commissions in an effort to end gerrymandering.
The bill would provide a government match of 6-1 for donations if a candidate accepts only low dollar contributions and would ban large political action committees or PACs that back single candidates.
“We have an opportunity here to reduce the role of dark money in politics and make it easier for Americans to participate in our Democracy,” said Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz. “This is not a partisan issue, this is an American democracy issue and the best solution to cleaning up corruption in Washington.”
[Opinion: The HR 1 ‘Incumbent Protection Act’ destroys free elections]
Republicans said the measure is written to favor Democrats and would give the federal government too much control over the election system.
“This new Democrat socialist majority wants the federal government to interfere in our free and fair elections,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Friday “This bill today is a massive government takeover that would undermine the integrity of our elections”
Democrats passed dozens of amendments to the 600 page-bill, including one that would help to pay for the new matching federal campaign contributions by establishing a 2.75 assessment on corporate criminal fines and settlements.
“This fund will be out of money in just a few years because the costs are going to exponentially rise,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill. “Clearly taxpayer dollars will have to bail it out.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has labeled the measure the “Democrat Politician Protection Act,” and said he won’t be bringing it up for a vote.
[Also read: McConnell: Democrats ‘running roughshod’ over state election]
Democrats have been eager to reform campaign finance laws and voter registration laws for many years. They denounced the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizen’s United ruling, which dismantled much of the campaign finance reform law passed in the previous decade, including some limits on campaign finance donations.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested Friday that despite the opposition from the GOP, public support for legislation could pressure the Senate to take it up.
“So the Senate, as you receive this bill, you will also be receiving the aspirations, the mobilizations, the persistence, the relentlessness of the American people to have the government work for them,” Pelosi said. “This is a fight we are engaged in. We are not going to end it until we win.”
