HR1
I came across a post about HR1 (117th) one how it would be destroying our voting in Federal elections with these points:
1) Nationwide Mail-In Voting
2) Legalized Limitless Ballot Harvesting
3) Prohibits Attempts To Clean Voter Rolls
4) Murderers & Rapists Can Vote
5) Internet-Only Registration With Electronic Signature
6) Banning Voter Registration Requirement Of Full SSN
7) Nationwide Same-Day Registration
8) Banning Voter ID
9) Congressional Takeover Of Redistricting
10) 16-Year Old Voter Age
11) Regulates Freedom Of Speech
12) Aims To Eliminate Anonymous Speech
13) DC Statehood
I’d like to go over each point and see what the HR1 (117th) says for each of the points talked about above. I’m no lawyer, just a regular American Citizen reading this convoluted text.
1) Nationwide Mail-In Voting
Honestly, voting by mail is a non-issue if the proper safe guards are put into place. We didn’t have those this election due to States changing the rules and moving the goal posts of what is allowed through mail-in voting. In Georgia they removed the signature verification which I’m sure would have caught many fraudulent ballots. On top of that, there needs to be a way to verify your ballot was received and your vote that you initially selected what the one that was cast.
But, I still thing Absentee Ballots should be just that, for Absentees that cannot make it to the polls. To fix this just have more polling locations open for early voting for a long period of time.
2) Legalized Limitless Ballot Harvesting
“(2) PERMITTING VOTERS TO DESIGNATE OTHER PERSON TO RETURN BALLOT.—The State—
“(A) shall permit a voter to designate any person to return a voted and sealed absentee ballot to the post office, a ballot drop-off location, tribally designated building, or election office so long as the person designated to return the ballot does not receive any form of compensation based on the number of ballots that the person has returned and no individual, group, or organization provides compensation on this basis; and
“(B) may not put any limit on how many voted and sealed absentee ballots any designated person can return to the post office, a ballot drop off location, tribally designated building, or election office.
Funny that they put no compensation, but the ballot harvesters in Minnesota never were prosecuted for breaking the law there. No one but the persons name on the ballot should be dropping these off. If you received it in the mail, you can put it right back in to the box. Otherwise, how do we know what happened in Minnesota didn’t happen anywhere else where people signed their ballot and someone else filled it out?
3) Prohibits Attempts To Clean Voter Rolls
PART 4—CONDITIONS ON REMOVAL ON BASIS OF INTERSTATE CROSS-CHECKS
“(B) To the extent that the program carried out by a State under subparagraph (A) to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters uses information obtained in an interstate cross-check, in addition to any other conditions imposed under this Act on the authority of the State to remove the name of the voter from such a list, the State may not remove the name of the voter from such a list unless—
“(i) the State obtained the voter’s full name (including the voter’s middle name, if any) and date of birth, and the last 4 digits of the voter’s social security number, in the interstate cross-check; or
“(ii) the State obtained documentation from the ERIC system that the voter is no longer a resident of the State.
“(C) In this paragraph—
“(i) the term ‘interstate cross-check’ means the transmission of information from an election official in one State to an election official of another State; and
“(ii) the term ‘ERIC system’ means the system operated by the Electronic Registration Information Center to share voter registration information and voter identification information among participating States.”.
(b) Requiring Completion Of Cross-Checks Not Later Than 6 Months Prior To Election.—Subparagraph (A) of section 8(c)(2) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 20507(c)(2)) is amended by striking “not later than 90 days” and inserting the following: “not later than 90 days (or, in the case of a program in which the State uses interstate cross-checks, not later than 6 months)”.
(c) Conforming Amendment.—Subparagraph (D) of section 8(c)(2) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 20507(c)(2)), as redesignated by subsection (a)(1), is amended by striking “Subparagraph (A)” and inserting “This paragraph”.
Prohibits? From reading this section is seems like it’s clarifying the process and methods used in removing a voter from the voter roll. Am I crazy here or does this not ban it but state what’s needed to purge voters that have moved?
4) Murderers & Rapists Can Vote
I mean, I think if you commit a violent felony, you shouldn’t have voting rights. Now, when we get to non-violent felony, it becomes more of a grey area. Like people who have gone to jail for years over a small amount of marijuana. That’s a bit ridiculous.
5) Internet-Only Registration With Electronic Signature
“(a) Requiring Availability Of Internet For Online Registration.—Each State, acting through the chief State election official, shall ensure that the following services are available to the public at any time on the official public websites of the appropriate State and local election officials in the State, in the same manner and subject to the same terms and conditions as the services provided by voter registration agencies under section 7(a):
“(1) Online application for voter registration.
“(2) Online assistance to applicants in applying to register to vote.
“(3) Online completion and submission by applicants of the mail voter registration application form prescribed by the Election Assistance Commission pursuant to section 9(a)(2), including assistance with providing a signature as required under subsection (c)).
“(4) Online receipt of completed voter registration applications.
Pretty straight forward here by wanting online voter registration. The problem is that it’s only a signature requirement. We’ll get into Voter ID later on down the list, but it does compare it with your signature on file at the State Motor Vehicle authority. Now, if you’re already checking for signature, why can’t we check for the ID itself? In my State I can log in and check everything with my license already, but we come to this part:
6) Banning Voter Registration Requirement Of Full SSN
SEC. 1005. PROHIBITING STATE FROM REQUIRING APPLICANTS TO PROVIDE MORE THAN LAST 4 DIGITS OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.
So, I still question why can’t we verify by ID/SSN when voting but to register to vote we need these to prove who we are. I can’t open a line of credit or buy a house off a signature alone, so why do we allow our elections to go on without Voter ID laws, which we will cover later.
7) Nationwide Same-Day Registration
SEC. 1031. SAME DAY REGISTRATION.
(a) In General.—Title III of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended—
(1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as sections 305 and 306; and
(2) by inserting after section 303 the following new section:
Basically what this section says, same day registration. Let me bring up a question about this, what if someone who isn’t eligible votes, and the vote is still counted even if it was determined that person wasn’t eligible? Is it processed immediately on site that the person is eligible or not? Are the requirements still the same if you registered in advance as would be if you registered on the day of an election? I mean, I do agree with this section:
“(A) to register to vote in such election at the polling place using a form that meets the requirements under section 9(b) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (or, if the individual is already registered to vote, to revise any of the individual’s voter registration information); and
I do agree you should be able to update your information while you’re there voting since you are already registered.
8) Banning Voter ID
Simple fix. Make this cost nothing and be able to register for a Voter ID online or requesting a form through the mail that you can return. We need ID’s for everything else in our daily lives, why not do so if so much of this bill is talking about the security of our voting system?
9) Congressional Takeover Of Redistricting
I will be honest and say I have never known how redistricting is done nor have I ever looked into it.
10) 16-Year Old Voter Age
PART 10—VOTER REGISTRATION OF MINORS
SEC. 1094. ACCEPTANCE OF VOTER REGISTRATION APPLICATIONS FROM INDIVIDUALS UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE.
(a) ACCEPTANCE OF APPLICATIONS.—Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 20507), as amended by section 1004, is amended— (1) by redesignating (sic) subsection (k) as sub section (l); and (2) by inserting after subsection (j) the following new subsection: ‘‘(k) ACCEPTANCE OF APPLICATIONS FROM INDIVIDUALS UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A State may not refuse to accept or process an individual’s application to register to vote in elections for Federal office on the grounds that the individual is under 18 years of age at the time the individual submits the application, so long as the individual is at least 16 years of age at such time.
‘‘(2) NO EFFECT ON STATE VOTING AGE REQUIREMENTS.—Nothing in paragraph (1) may be construed to require a State to permit an individual who is under 18 years of age at the time of an election for Federal office to vote in the election.’’.
As I understand this section in the HR1 bill, a State cannot refuse to accept an application to register to vote if under 18, but it’s not required by the State to permit an individual under 18 to vote.
So basically the bill would allow people under 18 to register, but not vote in Federal elections. States would be the final say if they are allow to vote in elections if the person registered is under 18.
All in all, this looks like a grasp that 16 year old citizens can now vote in Federal elections. This would still be up to the State to allow and the bill doesn’t force anyone under 18 to vote in State run Federal elections.
11) Regulates Freedom Of Speech
Is this talking about Sec 325? It’s really had to disseminate what each of these mean without linking directly to the bill.
“(a) In General.—Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c), a person, political committee, or other entity shall not, within 60 days of an election for Federal office at which a candidate for elective office will appear on the ballot, distribute, with actual malice, materially deceptive audio or visual media of the candidate with the intent to injure the candidate’s reputation or to deceive a voter into voting for or against the candidate.
Not entirely sure if that was the section or not.
12) Aims To Eliminate Anonymous Speech
I’m guessing this has to do with shell companies and LLCs related to money used by candidates?
13) DC Statehood
HR1 (Full Text)