Washington, March 3, 2021 – Today Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) spoke out against radical legislation moving through the House to drastically alter U.S. elections and strip state legislatures of their authority to run their own elections. Posey offered three amendments to ensure the integrity of elections and make the legislation more accountable, but none were allowed to be debated or voted on.
“This eight-hundred-page bill was written behind closed doors and allows for a complete takeover of our elections by the federal government and creates massive loopholes that are ripe for fraud and abuse,” said Congressman Posey. “The bill eliminates many election safeguards like voter ID laws which many European and other countries recently adopted to make their elections more secure. Americans deserve honest, fair and transparent elections – unfortunately this bill moves in the other direction.”
Specifically, H.R. 1 – cosponsored by every Democrat in the House – gives the federal government unprecedented power over our elections and codifies some dangerous election practices via federal mandate. Specifically, this legislation:
- Bans state voter-ID laws nationwide
- Repeals virtually all state election fraud prevention laws
- Mandates state universal mail-in ballots while prohibiting witness signatures
- Requires all states to allow ballot harvesting so that political operatives or special interest groups collect and turn in ballots
- Allows ballots arriving after Election Day to be counted up to 10 days after said election
- Creates a recipe for fraud by mandating same day registration while banning ID laws
- Funds campaigns with $6 taxpayer dollars for each $1 in campaign donations
- Takes everything wrong with the 2020 election and mandates it nationwide
Congressman Posey offered three amendments: (1) prohibiting voting machines from connecting to the Internet, (2) requiring election hardware and software be American made, and (3) ensuring that election machines are fully auditable and that elections officials could no longer deny audits due to proprietary software or hardware issues. Unfortunately, these amendments were blocked and not allowed to be voted on by the House.