Extremists' Plot to Nationalize Voter Suppression: 2023 and Beyond (Common Cause)

[Nevilledog]

https://www.commoncause.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Report-Federal-Anti-Voter-Bills.pdf

INTRODUCTION

The January 6th Select Committee has done critical work exposing the conspiracy to foment the insurrection and overturn the 2020 presidential election. The Committee’s work has laid bare that the insurrection’s violent rejection of democracy did not randomly occur in a vacuum. It was rooted in the Big Lie, and its legacy lives on in a wave of voter suppression legislation nationwide. Although significant attention has focused on the more than 400 anti-voter bills that have been introduced (several dozen of which have become law) in state legislatures since the insurrection, some federal bills making it harder to vote also portend a dangerous trend. Since the insurrection, congressional Republicans have introduced more than 30 anti-voter bills that have largely gone unnoticed. These anti-voter bills telegraph what some Republicans in Congress would like to do: make it harder for certain Americans to vote.

While none of these federal anti-voter bills will become law this year, if control of Congress switches after this November’s election, a Congress with different leadership may try to advance some of these proposals and do at the federal level what self-interested, power-hungry legislators in certain states are trying to do: make it harder to vote, and in ways that are disportionately targeted at Black and Brown voters. Instead of silencing voters on a state-by-state basis, certain members of Congress who introduced these anti-voter bills may try to disenfran- chise some voters in one fell swoop. This short report highlights the categories of different types of anti-voter bills that have been introduced in the 117th Congress.

VOTER REGISTRATION

“A bill to repeal the National Voter Registration Act” (H.R. 36), Rep. Andy Biggs, R-AZ: This bill would elimi- nate the National Voter Registration Act, aka “motor voter” law (this bipartisan law has helped tens of millions of Americans register to vote when getting their drivers’ licenses over the past 30 years)

“Ensuring American Voters Act” (H.R. 873), Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-OH: This bill would prohibit states from register- ing an individual to vote in federal elections unless the individual provides documentary proof of U.S. citizenship (this bill is a solution in search of a problem; there is no evidence of non-citizens trying to register to vote in any concerted effort in federal elections; this bill would likely make it harder for millions of Americans, including many elderly citizens, to vote)


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