Kerby Anderson

Recent surveys show that millions of Americans doubt that the 2020 elections were run fairly. That is why a number of state legislators are filing bills and considering what changes need to be made before the next election cycle. In fact, Senator Rand Paul announced on one TV program what he will be “spending the next two years going around from state to state and fixing these problems.” He and other members of Congress might also spend a significant amount of their time in Washington, trying to fix a bill that will likely pass the House and could even pass the Senate. The “For the People Act of 2021” is H.R. 1, meaning it is the first bill in Congress. It is similar to the “For the People Act” I discussed last year and was passed by the House of Representatives. Instead of trying to address some of the concerns millions of voters have with the way the 2020 elections were run, this bill attempts to go even further in the wrong direction. The bill essentially requires states to do away with nearly all election rules that exist to prevent election fraud. All states must have mail-in voting. All states must have automatic registration to vote. All states must have a period of early voting. All states must allow anyone to register the same day as an election. A state “may not require an individual to provide any form of identification as a condition of obtaining an absentee ballot.” The bill vastly expands ballot harvesting. It says that a voter can “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.” There’s much more in this bill, but you can see just from these few key points that this isn’t election reform. It’s a prescription for more problems in the next election.