Dems’ Push For Fed Control Of All Elections Is Going Nowhere

Early this summer, Senate Democrats tried to advance H.R. 1, a sweeping bill designed to launch a partisan federal takeover of America’s elections. They failed to win over even every Democrat in Congress. Now, they are offering a bill they’ve dubbed the Freedom to Vote Act, though a more honest name would be the Freedom to Cheat Act. Democrats say it’s new, but it’s really just a fresh face for the same federal takeover.

Progressives are working overtime to brand the Freedom to Vote Act as a bipartisan “compromise.” In truth, Democrats negotiated with themselves and once again are pushing a partisan agenda aimed at eliminating the most popular and proven safeguards that preserve Americans’ confidence in democracy.

Take voter ID laws, for instance. The Left rails against requiring an ID to vote, claiming — despite all evidence to the contrary — that it is “voter suppression.” With H.R. 1, they tried to abolish voter ID requirements outright. But four in five Americans actually want everyone to show a photo ID when they vote, and these ID laws have grown more popular this year — especially among black voters. Black voter support for photo ID laws jumped 13 percentage points in five months; today, more than three in four black and Hispanic voters back them.

Unsurprisingly, Democrats have walked back their rhetoric. But even as they publicly feign support for voter ID laws, they privately work to neuter them. For instance, progressives will be quick to say that the Freedom to Vote Act preserves voter ID. What they leave out is that the bill bans wildly popular photo ID requirements, bars ID for mail-in ballots, and imposes an identification standard for in-person voting so watered down that all you need to prove identity is to find another person willing to say they know you. Try that the next time you go through TSA.

Voter ID is just the beginning. The Freedom to Vote Act has most of the major elements of H.R. 1. The bill makes it harder for states to clean up voter rolls, even though studies have shown that as many as one in eight voter registrations are wrong. It forces every state to offer no-excuse mail voting, weaken absentee ballot safeguards, and accept ballots up to a week after election day. The bill mandates insecure drop boxes be made available in the dead of night, opening the door to vote trafficking by political operatives. And it hands out voting rights to