WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Fulcher voted NO on the over-700 page Democrat bill to federalize the United States election system. The elections bill, with provisions from H.R.1 and H.R.4, has now been inserted into an unrelated bill about NASA leasing authority and re-named H.R.5746, the “Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.”
There has been no formal CBO score released on H.R.5746, however the bill creates a 6 to 1 campaign donation matching program, with federal taxpayer dollars being used for political campaign contributions.
In addition, H.R. 5746 establishes an automatic and online voter registration system, eliminates states’ individual voter ID laws, and creates a system for states to require approval from the federal government before making changes to their election laws or practices. The legislation also gives the Federal Attorney General power to change election laws and bypass state constitutional processes.
Congressman Fulcher commented on his NO vote, “As I’ve said before, there is a proper place for healthy debate and consideration of ways to improve our election system– but this does not mean an exclusively-partisan takeover of our election process. Speaker Pelosi and Democrats have ignored input from Republicans and created this bill in a completely one-sided manner. Our election system has the ability to impact every single issue in our country and its integrity should be strengthened by bipartisan solutions– not threatened by biased, one-sided interests.”
During Wednesday evening’s debate on H.R.5746, House Administration Committee Republican Ranking Member Rodney Davis (IL-13) put forth a resolution, H.Res.866, recognizing that allowing illegal immigrants to vote fundamentally violates the sacred right to vote of all American citizens. In 2018, Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy introduced a similar resolution to condemn cities that allow non-citizens to vote. At that time, 49 Democrats supported the resolution and 69 voted PRESENT – not indicating a position either way.
Of the 49 Democrats that voted YES on the nearly-identical bill in 2018 (dismissing the 10 no longer in office), all of them changed their position and voted to block this new resolution, except Rep. Cartwright from Pennsylvania who declined to vote on the bill Wednesday night. Of the 69 who voted PRESENT on the 2018 bill, showing no preference either way, all of them (other than the 13 no longer in office) changed their position to support the ability for illegal immigrants to vote.
This resolution comes on the heels of New York Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’ endorsement of a bill by New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez to allow nearly one million non-citizens to vote in local elections.
Congressman Fulcher added, “Not only has President Biden promised incentives to illegal immigrants, encouraging them to break our country’s laws to enter– now the most liberal states are proposing voting rights for those who have done so as well. The right to vote is constitutionally granted to all citizens in this country and should not be extended to those who have broken United States laws and disregarded the immigration system to enter our country illegally.”
