For the (Democrats) Act of 2021

To paraphrase my late great mother-in-law, “It’s simply impossible to embarrass a Democrat.”

To prove her thesis, one need only look to the widespread fraud utilized by Democrats in seizing control of the White House and both houses of Congress in the 2020 General Election.  Although former vice president Joe Biden announced in October 2020 that “we have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics,” bemused Republicans saw his remark as just another Biden gaffe, while the average man on the street apparently saw the Democrats’ fraud-friendly developments as mere conveniences for voters who lacked the time or the patience to stand in long lines at polling places.

For those who were so convinced, allow me to assure you that “personal convenience” is not what Democrats had in mind when they launched their multi-faceted effort to steal the 2020 General Election.  The destructive nature of Alpine avalanches and Indonesian tsunamis pale in comparison to the determination exhibited by a group of Democrats intent upon stealing an election. There is literally no more dangerous place on the face of the Earth than to stand in the way of a Democrat with a handful of bogus ballots, rushing toward the nearest ballot box.

Now, in the early days of the 117^th Congress, congressional Democrats are making yet another bold attempt at insuring permanent political control over all three branches of government.  Euphemistically titled, the “For the People Act of 2021,” (the legislation is more aptly titled, “For the Democrats Act of 2021”), H.R. 1 contains little, if anything, that would benefit anyone but a partisan Democrat.  If enacted, the new law would:

• Mandate the availability of on-line registration.
• Ban the requirement for voters to provide a full SSN when registering to vote.
• Impose a “motor voter” registration requirement on all states.
• Require states to reduce voter registration age from eighteen to sixteen.
• Require all states to implement a “same-day” registration program for new voters.
• Provide grants to states for the purpose of increasing involvement of sixteen and seventeen-year-olds in election activities.
• Reserve the right to challenge an individual’s eligibility to register and to vote only to state and local election officials with personal knowledge of a voter’s eligibility.
• Require states to notify, in writing, all those citizens previously convicted of criminal offenses of their right to register and vote.
• Require states to establish “early voting” periods prior to Election Day.
• Prohibit states from imposing additional restrictions on a voter’s right to utilize an absentee ballot to vote by mail. 
• Prohibit states from requiring voters to provide any form of identification, other than a signature, when applying for an absentee ballot.
• Prohibit states from requiring notarization of absentee ballot applications.
• Permit voters to designate any other person to return a voted and sealed absentee ballot to an officially designated ballot collection point.
• Prohibit states from placing any limit on the number of absentee ballots another person may collect and return to an officially designated ballot collection point.
• Prohibit persons who are selected to return absentee ballots from receiving any form of compensation based on the number of ballots collected and returned.
• Require states to allow in-person voting by individuals who do not possess a photo ID, but who are willing to sign a sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, attesting to their identity and eligibility to vote.

The fraudulent and extralegal excesses of the 2020 General Election that resulted in Democrats winning the White House and both houses of Congress are essentially all codified within the provisions of H.R. 1.  And although they are seriously victimized by fraudulent practices in every election, congressional Republicans appear to be blithely indifferent to ceaseless efforts by Democrats to liberalize and destabilize the electoral process.  Although elections are generally a matter of state law, a comprehensive election reform law targeting federal elections would supersede state law.  A comprehensive election reform bill… one that would resolve most of the shortcomings of the present system… would include the following reforms:

1. Voter registration must be done only in person.  Fraud-friendly motor-voter, postcard, Internet, and same-day registration schemes must be either repealed or superseded.  In same-day registration states, Democrats have recruited teams of college students to travel from precinct to precinct, registering to vote and voting numerous times in the same day.
   
2. Registrations must be done only by full-time registrars, employees of counties and/or
   township government, and only in the state, county, and/or township in which the
   registrant maintains his/her primary residence.  Third party registrars, paid and unpaid,
   must be prohibited.
    
3. As a requisite for voter registration, each voter should be required to show proof of citizenship (birth certificate or passport) and proof of residence (driver’s license, residential deed, apartment lease, utility bills, etc.).
   
4. Before voting, each voter must show an official government-issued photo ID (driver’s license, passport, etc.), or an official state-issued voter registration card complete with name, home address, Social Security number, and precinct number.  As an alternative, and as a means of preventing voters from voting more than once in a single election, states may require voters to dip a finger into a vial of indelible ink after voting.
   
5. Court administrators must be required to furnish local election boards with name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number of every individual convicted of a felony.  County Coroners must be required to furnish election boards with copies of all death certificates.  Election boards must be required to purge voter registrations rolls of all felons and all deceased persons at least ten days prior to any election. 
   
6. Registered voters who move from one state to another, from one county or township to another, or from one precinct to another, must be required to obtain voter registration transfer documents from their local election board.  This document must be presented, in person, to voter registrars of the voter’s new place of residence.
   
7. Absentee ballots must be received no later than ten days prior to an election.  Absentee ballots, other than those of overseas military personnel, must be tallied no later than the day and hour that polls close in any election.  Absentee ballots completed by residents of hospitals, nursing homes, elder care, and mental health facilities must be completed only in the presence of representatives of both major political parties
   
8. Other than absentee ballots, voting must be done in person, only on the day of the election, and only in the precinct in which the voter maintains his/her primary place of residence.  Electronic voting and vote-by-mail schemes must be repealed or superseded.  Provisional ballots must be limited only to the most serious instances of clerical error by election board officials.
   
9. The Voting Rights Act must be amended to provide fines and mandatory jail sentences for any individual who would, in any election in which the name of a candidate for federal office appears on the ballot, do any of the following:
   
   1. Vote in the name of another person.
   2. Vote or attempt to vote more than once in any election.
   3. Vote in the name of a deceased or fictitious person.
   4. Vote in more than one state or political subdivision.
   5. Vote without benefit of U.S. citizenship.
   6. Intimidate, interfere with, or cause injury to the person or property of any other person peaceably engaged in the political process, or
   7. Cause any other person to do any of the foregoing.  

The leadership ranks of the Republican Party contain far too many Deep State RINOs and “Never-Trump” whiners who live by the credo, “We’ll get ‘em next time.”  Unfortunately, the faith of the American people in our ability to conduct free and honest elections has been so thoroughly shattered that the reforms proposed by Republicans and by Democrats tend to be diametrically opposed to each other.  Democrats insist on continued liberalization that benefits only their party and candidates, while Republicans insist on reforms that serve to simplify the electoral process and to eliminate opportunities for fraud and mismanagement.    

The endless cycle of liberalization of our election laws must end because we are now at a point in our nation’s history when we are seriously confronted by the proposition that, unless we are able to reestablish the voters’ faith in our electoral processes, there may not be a “next time.”

Democrats have always played a no-holds-barred game in which losing was not an option, no matter what they had to do to win.  It’s time we Republicans field a team that not only understands the game we’re playing, but a team that stays on the playing field until we’ve imposed our will on the other side.  The alternative is simply unthinkable.    

Paul R. Hollrah is a native of Missouri, a retired government relations executive, and a two-time member of the U.S. Electoral College.  He currently lives and writes among the hills and lakes of northeast Oklahoma’s Green Country.