20 States Send Letter to Congressional Leaders Promising Swift Consequences if HR1 Passes
by Elizabeth Stauffer, March 6, 2021
Democratic leaders no longer even try to hide their real objectives. All of the bills introduced by Democratic lawmakers of late have been undisguised power grabs.
Having been well pleased with the flexibility in voting methods the pandemic allowed them, and certainly with the results of the 2020 election, party leaders decided to make these changes permanent. The result was the passage of H.R. 1, the “For the People Act of 2021,” by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Noting the gross overreach by the federal government in the bill, the attorneys general of 20 states penned a letter to Congressional leadership which can be viewed here.
This group of top law enforcement officers wrote that “it is difficult to imagine a legislative proposal more threatening to election integrity and voter confidence.” They make the case that H.R. 1 strips the state legislatures of their constitutionally granted authority to determine how elections will be held in their states.
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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, the leader of this group and the first signer of the letter, issued a statement to Fox News which read in part, “This monstrosity of a bill betrays the Constitution, dangerously federalizes state elections, and undermines the integrity of the ballot box. As a former chief election officer, and now an Attorney General, I know this would be a disaster for election integrity and confidence in the processes that have been developed over time to instill confidence in the idea of ‘one person, one vote.’”
The letter addressed to leaders in Congress began: “As introduced, the Act betrays several Constitutional deficiencies and alarming mandates that, if passed, would federalize state elections and impose burdensome costs and regulations on state and local officials.
“Under both the Elections Clause of Article I of the Constitution and the Electors Clause of Article II, States have principal — and with presidential elections, exclusive — responsibility to safeguard the manner of holding elections. The Act would invert that constitutional structure, commandeer state resources, confuse and muddle elections procedures, and erode faith in our elections and systems of governance.”
It stated further, “the Act regulates ‘election for Federal office,’ defined to include ‘election for the office of President or Vice President.’ The Act therefore implicates the Electors Clause, which expressly affords ‘Each State’ the power to ‘appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct,’ the state’s allotment of presidential electors, and separately affords Congress only the more limited power to ‘determine the Time of chusing the Electors.’
“That exclusive division of power for setting the ‘manner’ and ‘time’ of choosing presidential electors differs markedly from the collocated powers of the Article I Elections Clause, which says that both States and Congress have the power to regulate the ‘time, place, and manner’ of congressional elections.”
“That distinction is not an accident of drafting,” the group maintained. “After extensive debate, the Constitution’s Framers deliberately excluded Congress from deciding how presidential electors would be chosen in order to avoid presidential dependence on Congress for position and authority.”
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They cited a Supreme Court ruling in the case of McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U.S. 1, 27 (1892) in which the court upheld “a Michigan statute apportioning presidential electors by district.” The court “observed that the Electors Clause ‘convey[s] the broadest power of determination’ and ‘leaves it to the [state] legislature exclusively to define the method’ of appointment of electors.”
“The exclusivity of state power to ‘define the method’ of choosing presidential electors,” the attorneys general wrote, “means that Congress may not force states to permit presidential voting by mail or curbside voting, for example.”
The group noted the Act’s “regulation of congressional elections” which includes “mandating mail-in voting, requiring states to accept late ballots, overriding state voter identification (‘ID’) laws, and mandating that states conduct redistricting through unelected commissions [gerrymandering], also faces severe constitutional hurdles.” Rather than “acting as a check,” the group argued, Congress is “seizing the role of principal election regulator.”
The letter excoriated the Democrats’ proposal to eliminate voter ID laws, which the group wrote is “perhaps” the “most egregious” feature of the bill. It also cited the Act’s attempt to put limitations on how states can purge voter rolls of those who have left the state.
THERE IS MUCH MORE TO THIS ARTICLE THAT YOU CAN READ HERE
