ORLANDO, Florida — GOP voters should feel confident about the integrity of future elections, participants across several panels at the Conservative Political Action Conference stressed this weekend.
Amid persistent allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential contest, which were rejected by election officials and the courts, many of the party’s voters are disillusioned by the process as Republicans regroup and set their sights on retaking control of Congress, and later, the White House. CPAC speakers argued that new provisions designed to protect the integrity of the vote should give GOP voters confidence as they head to the polls in 2022, with the Republican National Committee appointing Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters to lead an election integrity committee.
“We had our first call last Friday, but we were going to be proactive and make sure that everybody is confident that their vote counts. … [The committee] will have a permanent presence inside the building. Now we’re going to make sure that we have the best lawyers we can get. We will be proactive, not reactive,” Republican National Committee Co-Chair Tommy Hicks told American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp at CPAC on Sunday.
Hicks argued that the committee represents an important step toward ensuring election integrity in the 2022 midterm elections.
“This is the first time in over 30 years we’ve been able to have true Election Day operations because of a consent decree that we’d signed, so that’s part of our improvement. We will have the best legal representation possible, and we have a great team, and the 22 people on the committee for election integrity are fully committed, and they’re going to be meeting weekly, and they’re very resourceful,” he added.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy agreed that the party is in a strong position now to take on changes in voting processes, such as those related to mail-in and absentee voting, that were implemented during the coronavirus pandemic in the lead-up to the 2020 contest that critics view as being ripe for fraud.
“Well, I think we’re going to see a lot of state legislatures work on that. I think in Georgia, you’re seeing that and in other places. I think people are paying greater attention. I think from that standpoint, we’ll see real changes,” he said. “Also, we’ll be past COVID. There won’t be a need for these governors to have these emergency powers to change election laws so that changes a great deal.”
McCarthy expressed confidence that the GOP would reclaim the House in 2022, saying he would bet his personal house on the prospect.
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A recurring theme at each voter integrity panel focused on the campaign finance bill known as H.R.1, a measure designed to change several aspects of elections that House Democrats plan to bring to the floor for a vote this week. National Review‘s John Fund and former Federal Election Commission member Hans von Spakovsky discussed the legislation during their panel. Spakovsky noted the states’ attorneys general in South Carolina and Alabama successfully fought off legal battles to impose mail-in ballot requirements, but H.R.1 would reverse that and mandate that no state could enforce a witness signature requirement.
“It is the worst bill that’s of a non-physical nature that has ever been introduced in Congress. The table of contents is 24 pages long,” Fund said. “It basically … nationalizes the elections.”
Christian Adams, the president and general counsel of the conservative Public Interest Legal Foundation, added the private funding of elections through a nonprofit organization created by wealthy individuals is another issue worth addressing. He pointed to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg as an example.
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“The most important thing you guys can do is stop the private funding of elections, like the center for technology and civic life. The Zuckerberg $450 million — that changed the election more than anything else,” Adams said. “And that’s a drop in the bucket. They’ve been spending hundreds of millions in this space since 2005. When we go to court, the other side of the courtroom doesn’t have enough chairs for all the lawyers. They have 15 lawyers in some cases.”
