Billy Long: No idea why you don't need an ID to vote

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

Every Congress, the legislative bill H.R. 1 is usually the majority party’s number one priority. 

Our nation faces many crises; is Democrat’s number one priority the crisis at the border? Is it reopening our schools? Is it tackling a global pandemic? No, it is making sure they can retain their grip on power after losing the presidential election in 2016 and barely hanging on to their majority in the House of Representatives in 2020. 

Instead of legislation that will help the American people, Democrats have made their number one priority partisan election reform. H.R. 1, dubbed the For the People Act is not really for the people, it is for the politicians.

The Democrats just passed H.R. 1 with no Republican support. This completely partisan legislation is nothing more than a power grab by Democrats and only serves to enrich the campaign coffers of Washington D.C. elites and their brethren. 

One of the most egregious provisions in this legislation is the federal matching of small-dollar campaign contributions. The federal government, with your taxpayer dollars, will match every donation up to $200 to a candidate 6 to 1. This means that if you were to donate $200 to a candidate, the federal government would contribute an additional $1,200 to that candidate’s campaign. 

The federal government would be directly funding attack ads, social media ads, unsolicited phone calls, and more for a candidate that you may not agree with. This is simply unacceptable. The federal government should not be giving one cent to a political campaign.

Even more egregious is a provision in this bill that skirts state voter identification laws. Per the Constitution, states decide how they should run their elections. However, this bill would force states to ignore their voter I.D. laws by allowing voters without a valid I.D. to cast their votes by signing a sworn statement saying they are who they say they are. How will this stop fraud? It won’t. 

Anyone can walk into any polling place and sign a piece of paper saying they are someone else. How will you ever catch someone committing this fraud if they are already lying about who they are?

In addition to these terrible provisions, the bill would also mandate automatic and same-day voter registration nationwide. While these things sound great on paper, they’re flawed in practice. This bill would require automatic registration of individuals that are in state and federal databases.

 In states where this is done, there are often ineligible individuals or even illegal aliens placed on voter rolls. Same-day voter registration does not give the state time to verify the identity of a voter and opens the potential for fraud.

The bottom line is that the Constitution gives states the power to run their elections how they see fit. This bill attempts to take away that power from the states and put it in the hands of the federal government. 

If passed by the Senate, your taxpayer dollars will directly fund political campaigns, voter ID laws will become void, and California-style automatic and same-day voter registration will be mandated across the nation, removing integrity from our elections. 

Verifying the identity of a voter should be a simple thing we should all be able to agree on. For some reason, Democrats do not want the identity of voters to be verified. If this bill becomes law, the integrity of our elections will be all but lost.

If you're going to a movie theater that serves alcohol don't forget your I.D. because they will ask to see it even if you're 98 years old, whether you order a drink or not. And no, you cannot sign a sworn statement claiming to be 21, so don't even try.