Public trust in our nation’s electoral process has plunged to an all-time low.
There are obvious reasons. For one, many voters woke up the day after the election to completely different results than what they had seen the night before. If they did stay up late, they saw states pause ballot-counting in the middle of the night. And the ballot counting dragged on for weeks after the election.
This came amid an election process that included unprecedented and widespread use of mail-in ballots. It was a recipe for distrust.
The 2020 election is now over, and President Biden has been inaugurated. But Congress still has a duty to restore trust in our democracy.
A responsible Congress would address the root cause of the loss of trust. It would give people reasons to believe in the electoral process by immediately safeguarding against fraud and encouraging transparency and speedy ballot-counting.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plan to do the opposite. H.R. 1 and S.1, the Democratic Party’s top legislative priorities in the 117th Congress, give voters even more reasons to distrust the electoral process.
It would give Washington bureaucrats the unconstitutional power to draw states’ electoral districts. It would give voting rights to all felons. It would give public, taxpayer funds to private political campaigns. Finally, and most tellingly, it endorses statehood for the District of Columbia, which is expressly forbidden by the Constitution.
All of these things are unrelated to election security, but they do share something in common: They would enhance the power of the Democratic Party.
Voters were worried about unscrupulous parties “rigging” our elections. Democrats are vindicating their fears with this exercise in rigging elections in their favor. That’s not a conspiracy, and it’s not a theory. It’s a readily available fact.
Republicans may be in the minority in Congress, but we have an obligation to show voters that Congress is capable of putting fair elections ahead of partisan gain. That’s why I joined 30 lawmakers on Jan. 15 in the Republican Study Committee to introduce the Save Democracy Act.
This bill is full of what should be nonpartisan, uncontroversial measures to strengthen the security of elections for federal offices. It would require voter citizenship verification to register to vote in federal elections. It would prohibit sending out unrequested absentee ballots for federal elections. It would require at least two representatives from each presidential campaign be permitted to observe polls and vote-counting operations. It requires that ballot-counting, once begun, continue until completed.
Voters deserve elections they can trust. Democrats in Congress want to deny them that — and it’s a shame.
Jim Banks represents Indiana’s 5th Congressional District in the House of Representatives.
