On Tuesday, with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s, R-Fla., support, U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., introduced the “Protect Electoral College Act.”
The bill would have Congress stop sending election security money to states which “are unconstitutionally disregarding state election laws.”
Hagerty explained some of the details of the proposal on Monday.
“Today, I joined Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Kevin Cramer to introduce the Protect Electoral College Act, a bill that will protect the Electoral College process and the authority it commits to state legislatures to set election laws by prohibiting federal election security grants from being awarded to states that are unconstitutionally disregarding state election laws. Leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Congress appropriated over $800 million in election security grants for states, including states in which activists unconstitutionally changed the election rules established by the state legislatures. Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution is clear that elected, accountable state legislatures—not activist judges, not election officials or commissions, not lawsuit settlements—have sole responsibility for setting the presidential election rules in their states. Yet, in several battleground states in the 2020 election, non-legislative actors changed the election rules in the middle of the game, despite having no constitutional authority to do so. In effect, our legislation would prohibit federal taxpayer dollars from being used to aid and abet states in modifying their election procedures in violation of the U.S. Constitution,” Hagerty noted.
“Democracy is held together by people’s confidence in elections and a willingness to abide by their results,” Rubio said. “While I believe the results of the presidential election were correctly decided, there is absolutely no doubt that the actions taken by some states raised serious constitutional questions. We cannot allow that to happen again, which is why I’m proud to join Senator Hagerty in supporting this legislation to safeguard every American’s vote, restore confidence in our elections, and preserve our system of federalism.”
U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, is also backing the proposal.
“Instead of working with Republicans to craft reasonable election security improvements, Democrats have taken a two-pronged approach to enact an extreme vision for America’s elections,” Cramer said. “While Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats push a bill to federalize elections that tramples on free speech and states’ rights, liberal activists are working at the state level to undermine the Electoral College and take away the voice states like North Dakota have in choosing our president. Both efforts must be stopped. Our bill protects the integrity of the Electoral College, preserves the constitutional duty of states to oversee elections, and ensures taxpayer dollars are not used to violate existing election laws. Enacting it would be a common-sense way for Congress to help restore the American people’s trust in our elections.”
Hagerty’s bill was sent to the U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee on Tuesday. So far, there is no companion measure over in the U.S. House.
Reach Kevin Derby at [email protected].
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