Ranking Member Morelle Opening Remarks for Elections Hearing on Ensuring Every Eligible American Has the Opportunity to Vote

"Thank you, Chairwoman Lee, for yielding time to me.

And thank you to the Ranking Member.

Today's hearing reminds me of that well-worn Yogi Berra quote, "It's like déjà vu all over again.'

Here we are again discussing the alleged lack of confidence in our elections. It's like we're watching a new streaming show called "Election denial.'

A show where the writers included the outset a "previously on' Elections denials segment to discuss the crisis in elections confidence. But every week it's the same scene -- my Republican colleagues and friends crying lack of confidence, which they are squarely to blame for creating in the first place.

Today's hearing is the 3rd in a series entitled "American Confidence in Elections,' with a fourth scheduled next month, which has been convened to discuss this alleged "lack' of confidence in our elections.

I, for one, do not understand the hearing series. The American people think many things, but they have not had their confidence in our elections shaken; instead, they believe elections are secure.

All told, this Committee has held 6 elections-related hearings this year, either before the full Committee or this Subcommittee, and the lack of confidence theme continues to permeate my friends on the Majority's sides talking points.

Indeed, the people fomenting this crisis in confidence are first of all former President Trump and his supporters in Congress. In truth, if anything, this "crisis' is a byproduct of the Republican party's complicity in former President Trump's Big Lie.

Instead of a lack of confidence in our elections, the American people are worried about backsliding towards autocracy.

They are worried that the extreme wing of the Republican party will continue to roll back voting rights, impose partisan election administration, and only accept electoral results when and if they win.

This is not what our democracy should look like.

These concerns are not fanciful. The repetition of lies and misinformation about our elections directly led to an insurrection on our Capitol and an attempt to stop the certification of a free, fair, and secure election.

Nonpartisan experts agree -- the 2020 election was the most secure election in U.S. history.

Every single Republican witness this Congress has answered, when asked at the table, as all of our witnesses are, have been asked whether Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. They have all said yes.

The continued failure to acknowledge or accept that fact by the majority actually undermines voter confidence and perpetuates dangerous behavior on the part of vigilante actors and those who seek to mine doubt in elections for their own profit.

We know that the former President and his lawyers filed dozens of frivolous lawsuits that were ultimately thrown out of court for lack of merit, yet raised millions of dollars from donors in supposed legal funds to fight a "stolen election.'

Something the former President continues to say at rallies and public appearances.

The former President went so far as to asking repeatedly the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice officials about seizing voting machines, premised on the Big Lie, knowing that the Department of Homeland Security lacked the legal authority to do so.

These actions actually undermine confidence in our elections.

So here we are again. I'll keep showing up. I'll continue to listen for facts. I'll continue to ask questions.

But I won't hold my breath for truth in this "American Confidence in Elections" hearing series, and that my colleagues is beyond troubling.

Thank you, Madam Chair, I yield back."

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