By Nancy Thorner -
The following is part of a directive recently sent out by Eli Huber, Upper Midwest Regional Coordinator for Heritage Action for America.
"On Tuesday, August 24, 2021, the House passed H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, on a party-line vote. H.R. 4 is a Leftist scheme to give President Biden’s bureaucrats in the federal government VETO power over state election integrity laws. Biden’s politicized lawyers in the Justice Department would use this veto power to overturn state voting laws they politically disagree with, such as extremely popular voter ID laws in Republican-controlled state legislatures. Not a single Republican voted in support of the rule or H.R. 4. H.R. 4 requires 60 votes in the Senate.”
H.R. 4 now heads to the Senate, where it faces stiff GOP resistance. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has called it " unnecessary," and said it would give the Justice Department too much power over states. With an evenly divided Senate, all 50 Democrats and at least 10 Republicans would need to vote for the bill for it to pass.
"H.R. 4 is a Leftist scheme to give President Biden’s bureaucrats in the federal government VETO power over state election integrity laws. Biden’s politicized lawyers in the Justice Department would use this veto power to overturn state voting laws they politically disagree with, such as extremely popular voter ID laws.
H.R. 4 would accomplish this by altering and weaponizing the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 for the Left’s partisan political gain.
This is a dangerously effective tactic, because the Voting Rights Act is generally a good and popular law. By stealing its good name for their new bill and partisan power grab, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer hope to gain mainstream America’s support by default.
To understand how the Left intends to hijack the Voting Rights Act, it’s helpful to understand the basics of the original law:
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act made it illegal to deny or abridge the right to vote on account of race or color. Section 2 reinforces and strengthens the protections in the 15th amendment. And importantly, section 2 is still law (as it should be!).
When most people think of the VRA, section 2 is usually what they think of. With H.R. 4, Pelosi seeks to weaponize lesser known provisions of the VRA (sections 3, 4, and 5).
H.R. 4 would change Section 3 to enact a fast and loose definition of discrimination. Under this new “disparate impact” definition, a voting law that applies to all equally, but potentially results in a statistical difference in impact, would now be in violation of the VRA. Under this loose definition, the federal government is given wide latitude to invalide state election laws without showing any actual intent to discriminate.
Furthermore, H.R. 4 would change the coverage formula for “preclearance” found in section 4, which determines which states the federal government essentially has veto power over. The power of preclearance is found in section 5 of the VRA, and it essentially creates a federal veto power over the election laws of certain states.
Important context about preclearance and its history
- Preclearance was originally supposed to expire after five years, but Congress extended it several times.
- During the Obama years, Attorney General Eric Holder abused preclearance as a personal veto to stop states from passing common-sense voting reforms and lawsuits were filed challenging preclearance.
- In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court found section 4 of the VRA unconstitutional. Because the formula for selecting states for preclearance had never been updated since the 1970’s, states were being continually punished for 50-year old mistakes that had been long rectified.
- After Shelby County, Leftist partisans in the federal government no longer had veto power over state election laws, and states were able to pass many common-sense reforms, like voter ID. End of quote from Heritage toolbox to stop HR4
Now, with Pelosi’s partisan power grab in H.R. 4, the section 4 coverage rules are re-written to skirt the Supreme Court’s decision so the federal government would once again have veto power over state election laws. Importantly, to overturn an election law, federal employees would not have to show that the law had any discriminatory effect or intent. Not liking the law would be reason enough.
With Leftist partisans wielding a reinstated preclearance veto-power, they would be able to stop countless election security laws passed by state governments. This would enable the Left to continue practices such as ballot harvesting and the mass-mailing of absentee ballots, even to individuals who did not request them. Voter ID would be gone, and in its place, same-day voter registration would become the law of the land." End of quote from Heritage toolbox to stop HR4
Evaluation of HR 4 (John Lewis Voting Rights Act)
As Juana Summers wrote on August 24, 2021 in his article, "The House Has Passed A Bill To Restore the Voting Rights Act":
Snippets from the article:
"House lawmakers approved new legislation aimed at protecting the right to vote on Tuesday, amid a wave of restrictive new elections laws from Republican-controlled state legislatures."
“Old battles have become new again," said Alabama Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell, who introduced the legislation. "I want you to know that the modern day barriers to voting are no less pernicious than those literacy tests and those poll taxes. And what we must do, as we did back in the '60s, is when we see states running amok, we need federal oversight.”
"Democrats say the bill, known as H.R. 4, would strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had been weakened by a pair of Supreme Court rulings over the course of the last decade. Its supporters say that would make it more difficult for states to restrict future voting access."
“Republican Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois described as a "partisan power grab which circumvents the people to ensure one-party rule.”
“The House is acting. The Senate also has to join them to send this important bill to my desk, and the Senate has to move forward on the people's act — critical legislation to protect our democracy and the right to vote," Biden said. "We need both of those.”
“Republicans have already blocked a separate sweeping elections and voting bill known as the For The People Act. That legislation seeks to end gerrymandering of congressional districts, set mandates for early and mail-in voting and increase transparency in campaign financing. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said that the Senate will turn to voting rights legislation when lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., in September.”
"Voting rights is the test of our time," activists chanted, reprising Biden's own declaration made during a speech in Philadelphia last month."
What does the bill do?
Another critique of the HR 4 was titled, “House Dems Pass Bill That Will Give Them Full Control of Every Future Election”.
Our election system is already jacked up and riddled with holes already, but this bill being passed into law would be a disaster.
So what does this bill do exactly?
"It cancels the voter ID requirement which should be common sense, right? We show an ID for so many things in life, but when it comes to voting, it’s racist according to the Democrats. Yet, here they are trying to force everyone to get vaccinated and then to carry a vaccine passport with them, which is an ID that you have to show to go to some places.
The bill prevents states from having to maintain and update their voter rolls which is a huge window for fraud to occur.
It federalizes elections instead of them being state elections. Some people may not realize it, but in November, there area actually individual elections in each state and those results are pooled together. What they’re proposing would be something akin to getting rid of the electoral college. They know that they can’t do that so they’ll try the next best thing.
This also gives the Department of Justice too much power and grants them the ability to veto election laws that they may take issue with. That way Democrats can cheat because certain laws can be changed, added, or dropped on the fly." End of quote.
"H.R. 4 gives the Biden DOJ authority to designate a voter ID law as a voting rights violation or as evidence of voting discrimination. H.R. 4 is an unconstitutional way for the federal government to dictate elections and a way to weaken the vote of the American people!"
Action needed
Time is running out. Senator Schumer did indicate the he would bring H.R. 4 up for a vote in September. Call your senator and ask them to vote No. Those with Democrat senators must remind their senators that voting Yes would means supporting a monstrous inflation-inducing, tax-and-spending spree which is already causing the spiking of gasoline and food, etc.
Those with Republicans senators must convey the same message.
For the bill to pass 10 Republicans would need to vote NO with all the Democrat senators; however, there are many RINO Republican senators who cannot be depended on to vote for what is best for their constituents.
