{"id":1951793,"date":"2023-06-20T11:48:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T15:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-election-grants-may-have-helped-democrats-in-2020-say-republicans\/"},"modified":"2023-06-20T11:48:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T15:48:02","slug":"federal-election-grants-may-have-helped-democrats-in-2020-say-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-election-grants-may-have-helped-democrats-in-2020-say-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Election Grants May Have Helped Democrats in 2020, Say Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederal-election-grants-may-have-helped-democrats-in-2020-say-republicans%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1951793&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0620\/320758bb-cc68-4cde-a1b8-4cc08e8bed1c\/audio.mp3?length=5531373&#038;duration=461\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>A 2002 federal election law and the agency it created\u00a0may have played a role in turning out votes for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, according to House Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>The stated mission of the two taxpayer-funded federal initiatives\u2014the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)\u2014is to improve voting.<\/p>\n<p>Both came under fire from House Republicans last week for what happened in California just before the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>On Aug. 27, 2020, the <a href=\"http:\/\/apnews.com\">Associated Press<\/a> reported that Golden State election officials signed a $35 million contract with a Washington-based public affairs firm for the purpose of getting people to vote during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5337957\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/06\/16\/id5337957-Pro-Biden-Firm-1200x661.png\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> A screenshot of a website showing an election contractor\u2019s partisan views in 2020. (Courtesy of Bryan Steil)<\/figure>\n<p>According to AP, the firm\u2019s managing director was Anita Dunn, a senior strategist for the Biden campaign.<\/p>\n<p>At a June 14, 2023, hearing of the House Committee on Administration, Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) riled up the panel\u2019s Democrat members by displaying a blown-up screenshot from the company\u2019s website that openly bragged about its support for Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Steil identified the company, SKD Knickerbocker (SKDK) as the contractor.<\/p>\n<p>He used the visual aid to support his allegation that a state government spent federal grant money for political purposes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe state of California was awarded $35 million in federal funds. California spent that money on a Get-Out-the-Vote campaign,\u201d alleged Steil.<\/p>\n<p>Pointing to the blown-up screenshot displayed on an easel, Steil alleged SKD Knickerbocker was \u201cBiden\u2019s campaign advisory firm.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Conflict of Interest?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThey listed themselves as a part of \u2018Team Biden.\u2019 If that\u2019s not a conflict of interest, I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a violation of federal law to use HAVA grant funds for get-out-the-vote activity,\u201d he alleged.<\/p>\n<p>EAC Chairperson Christy McCormick, a witness invited to testify before the committee, agreed that get-out-the-vote efforts are \u201cnot an appropriate use of HAVA funds, but contended that SKDK used state money, not federal dollars, to fund its activities in California.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5141493\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/03\/22\/Bryan-Steil-1200x675.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) speaks at a hearing with the House Administration subcommittee on Elections in Washington on June 24, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>In response, Steil cited figures from the California Secretary of State\u2019s office showing that $11.8 million paid to SKDK were federal funds.<\/p>\n<p>He said the public becomes concerned any time they see \u201cpolitical activity funded with federal taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Steil also alleged the so-called voter education campaign \u201ctargeted specific voters\u201d and said the contract was awarded through an \u201cexpedited process.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Democrats Respond<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Before he began his rebuttal of Steil\u2019s assertions, Ranking Member Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.) jokingly said that he was impressed with the screenshot and asked the chairman to place it behind him during his remarks, implying that he also was proud to be on Team Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Morelle then told the committee that the agreement was not a sole-source contract and that SKDK was one of several bidders.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3994334\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2021\/09\/13\/New-Project-1200x675.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Congressman Joe Morelle, who represents New York\u2019s 25th Congressional District, in an undated file photo. (Courtesy of Joe Morelle)<\/figure>\n<p>He stated that the Inspector General of the EAC investigated the SKDK situation and determined that the California Secretary of State had executed the contract in accordance with EAC guidelines and the \u201cfunds were not used for unallowable\u201d purposes.<\/p>\n<p>McCormick asserted that in her overall experience, the EAC has found no misuse of HAVA funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Steil criticized the HAVA for not dealing with terms like voter registration drive, voter education, and get-out-the-vote efforts, leaving the law open to subjective interpretation and potential abuse.<\/p>\n<p>Chairman Steil granted Congressman Bob Good (R-Va.), who is not a member of the administration committee, a chance to address the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Good referenced a report from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that identified nine vulnerabilities in the leading makes of voting machines.<\/p>\n<p>He also said he hoped eventually to bring to a future committee hearing a tech expert who demonstrated how easy it is to hack into a voting machine connected to the internet.<\/p>\n<p>Good said that at a recent roundtable gathering in Virginia the technician, \u201cbefore our very eyes,\u201d added and subtracted votes, changed votes, and reversed the outcome of a mock election.<\/p>\n<p>Though maintaining that today\u2019s voting machines are not connected to the internet, McCormick conceded that there are times on election night the machines are connected to the internet for result-reporting purposes.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Vulnerabilities Can Be Exploited<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>McCormick said, \u201cAnomalies happen in the system. Vulnerabilities can be exploited for sure,\u201d but added that EAC did not see any vulnerabilities exploited in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>McCormick expects the system to be even more secure in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are security concerns with the older machines,\u201d said EAC commissioner Donald Palmer.<\/p>\n<p>He said the EAC uses \u201cpenetration testing\u201d to assure the system<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 2002 federal election law and the agency it created\u00a0may have played a role in turning out votes for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, according to House Republicans. The stated mission of the two taxpayer-funded federal initiatives\u2014the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)\u2014is to improve voting. Both came under<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":369,"featured_media":2181676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/13\/id5263048-EpochImages-8554957919-US-Flag-Capitol-870x522.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1951793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/13\/id5263048-EpochImages-8554957919-US-Flag-Capitol-870x522.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1951793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2181676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1951793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1951793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1951793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}