The Left loved the chaos and confusion of the 2020 election, allowing them to implement their vote harvesting strategies and pack the polls, and the post office, with ballots that may or may not have been eligible. Now, with H.R. 1 ("The Death of Democracy Act") they are trying to codify the election loopholes and implement a federal takeover of local elections.
Many states are pushing back, pursuing legislation that seeks to close these election loopholes that at best created mass confusion and doubt, and at worst allowed actual election fraud to take place.
In response, the Left is playing its tried and true outrage cards. Chief among their alleged outrage is that states' efforts to secure local elections and curtail voter fraud is just a thin veil to mask attempts to suppress and discourage voter turnout.
Yet the exact opposite is true, and if the Left were really concerned about maximizing voter turnout, they would be championing the efforts of states.
The right to vote, and the belief that your vote counts, is the bedrock of a free society. But if people do not believe an election will be conducted fairly, that their vote and their neighbor's vote will not carry the same weight, then people will not participate.
So, while Biden and his party fixate on using "The Death of Democracy Act" to consolidate power to the feds and institutionalize opportunities for voter fraud, various states are realizing the real and dangerous threat to our representative form of government and are taking action.
One of the states leading the way is Texas.
In the 2020 election Texas witnessed firsthand how easily political operatives can take advantage of early voting, mail-in voting, and unidentified voting to change election results. Now state legislators are hoping to restore the integrity of that process.
"It's important that the system be fair, but it's equally important that people know it's fair, so they'll participate, so they'll vote," State Sen. Bryan Hughes told NBC News.
Several bills are proposing to standardize early voting hours to reassure voters that midnight deliveries of ballots cannot sway an election. State Rep. Jared Patterson, for example, introduced a bill to limit early voting to the hours of 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. As he pointed out on Twitter, “Momma always said nothing good happens after midnight. That includes at polling places.”
Other legislation would target the fraud that inevitably accompanies mail-in voting. Some would limit the period in which voters could return mail-in ballots, while others would require mail-in ballots to be accompanied by a driver's license or other qualifying identification.
Another set of bills would impose strict penalties on election officials who fail to do their job. Some would add or increase penalties for fraud or mistakes made by election officials, and others would ensure that noncitizens cannot vote by forcing officials to purge voter rolls.
Sen. Hughes' bill, for example, would impose a $100 fine per voter on election officials who fail to purge their rolls in a timely manner.
So while Leftists in D.C.'s solution is to not just turn a blind eye to election integrity, but encourage exactly the opposite, Texas is moving swiftly and decisively to give voters confidence in the election process.
Other states should follow Texas' lead as soon as they can for two important reasons.
First, election fraud is not just politics as usual; it's against the law, and those who try to engage in it should be prosecuted. Ineligible people should not be voting in our elections. Whether they aren't citizens, no longer live in a certain state, or are mentally incapacitated, individuals who are ineligible by law cannot be allowed to participate in our elections.
Mail-in voting, early voting, and ID-less voting encourage precisely this kind of criminality. If we want to ensure our elections are fair and accurate, we should be putting measures in place to keep fraud out of our elections.
Second, and equally as important, election legislation, like we see in Texas, will restore Americans' confidence in the health of our country's democracy. According to a recent Morning Consult poll, only 65% of Americans believe the 2020 election was free and fair, including only 32% of Republicans.
That's an abysmal number. In the greatest representative democracy in the history of the world, 100% of its citizens should be able to trust the election process. Without that trust, fewer Americans will participate, everyone will treat elections with cynicism, and we will create a dangerous environment in our country.
These bills will go a long way toward restoring proper trust in our elections. If every voter is identified and every vote accounted for, Americans will have no reason to doubt the veracity of any given election. The results may not be what they hoped, but at least they'll have confidence that elections can't be stolen, rigged or are otherwise fraudulent.
If states want to fight back against the federal takeover of our election process, they should follow Texas' lead and get to work, because the cost of inaction will be more than our Republic can bear.
Mark Meckler is a constitutional activist who co-founded several grassroots organizations including Convention of States Action, Citizens for Self-Governance, and Tea Party Patriots. After many years in California, he, his wife Patty, and their two Great Danes now enjoy life in Texas. They have two adult children. Read Mark Meckler's Reports - More Here.
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