For the People Act
Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, before I begin my remarks, I do want to respond to my colleague and his comments about the For the People Act, which the Democratic Party is continuing to push.
Now, I will say that I am pleased to learn that many of my Democratic colleagues are standing up against the Jim Crow-era policies that their party put in place, the work that their party did with the KKK and other entities to block and obstruct access to the voting booth. And I will remind him also that the 1965 Voting Rights Act was a very solidly bipartisan effort that took place here in this Chamber.
And in regard to their S. 1, H.R. 1, For The People Act, it is anything but the For the People Act. What this would do is make it easier to cheat and harder to vote. We should be working to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. That is what election integrity is all about, and that is what the American people would like to see.
What this bill would do, their S. 1, H.R. 1, would federalize elections. Now, many in this Chamber may have served on an election commission or been the secretary of state in their State, and they fully appreciate and understand it is the constitutional duty--the constitutional duty--of the States to set the time, place, and manner of elections, and that the voter rolls are maintained there in your local county by citizens who serve on the election commission and who work those polls. But this bill that the Democrats are wanting to pass would, in essence, do away with voter ID.
Do you know what? Recent polling of various and different groups, numerous groups, have shown 80 percent of the American people really support showing a voter ID, showing an ID in order to cast that ballot. Prove that you are who you are. Their legislation would also institutionalize ballot harvesting, something that really offended so many thousands of citizens this year because with mail-out ballots, which they want to institutionalize, some people got three, four, five ballots. You can go online on social media, see pictures or videos of people holding up multiple ballots. That is not election integrity. That is not something that will ensure trust in the system. That would cause more doubt.
We should agree--we should agree, as Members of this Chamber, that we will work together to ensure that our local and State officials can carry forward with their elections
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