The House voted 220-210 Wednesday to pass the For the People Act, a sweeping package of election reforms that would crack down on voter suppression, protect elections, get money out of politics, strengthen ethics rules, and fight corruption.
As you can tell by the tight margin, it was a partisan vote, which, shame on us, that measures like expanding same-day registration, strengthening vote-by-mail and early voting and ending partisan gerrymandering are partisan issues.
What an odd place we’re in.
“Today the House took a bold step to restore power to the people,” said Eighth District Democrat Don Beyer, who voted in favor. “H.R. 1 would revitalize America’s democracy with some of the most important election reforms in a generation. I am proud that it included the text of my bill, the PROVE Act, which would give a huge boost to civic engagement among young people. The legislation we just passed would do so much good for the country, and I strongly urge our Senate colleagues to take it up with all possible haste.”
“Keeping tax dollars out of political campaigns was an important clarification I sought to improve this legislation,” Second District Democrat Elaine Luria said. “The For The People Act will strengthen our democratic institutions by improving access to the ballot box, securing our elections, and delivering needed transparency to our campaign finance system. I believe this legislation will help change business-as-usual in Washington by strengthening ethics laws and increasing federal oversight.”
For the other side, here’s First District Republican Rob Wittman, who voted no.
“H.R. 1 is a big government power grab that further weakens the integrity and security of our election system,” Wittman said. “It mandates unconstitutional changes, reversing the longstanding history of state and local control of the electoral process, and instead creates a federally mandated process. H.R. 1 forces states to accept ballot harvesting, weakened voter ID requirements, unrestricted absentee voting without sufficient identification requirements, and the automatic pre-registration of 16- and 17-year-olds to vote. Overseeing these new, highly controversial provisions would be a newly partisan FEC, headed by a commissioner who some are already calling the ‘Speech Czar,’ empowered to decide what campaign speech is acceptable and what is not.”
It’s fair to point out that Wittman voted against certifying Pennsylvania electors hours after insurrectionists urged on by then-President Trump overran the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the Senate from certifying the 2020 election.
“Big government power grab.”
Gotcha.
Full text of the For The People Act is available here, with a short summary here.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
