McConnell Shreds Controversial Bill Democrats Trying To Pass: ‘Even The Left-Wing ACLU Opposes This Bill’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sounded off during a Rules Committee hearing on Wednesday afternoon about S.1, the controversial bill that Democrats are trying to enact that would federalize elections.

“It’s also noteworthy that this is a solution in search of a problem,” McConnell said. “The turnout in 2020 was up 7%. The turnout in the 2020 election was the highest since 1900. States are not engaging and trying to suppress voters whatsoever. This is clearly an effort by one party to rewrite the rules of our political system. But even more immediately, it would create an implementation nightmare, as Senator Blunt pointed out that would drown state and local officials who run elections.”

“Popular policies like voter ID requirements would be banned, unless states neutered them with loopholes,” McConnell continued. “Meanwhile, unpopular and absurd practices like ballot harvesting, where paid political operatives can show up carrying stacks of other people’s ballots would not just be allowed, it would be mandatory. Washington would mandate that every state and county in America adopt same day voter registration with minimal safeguards, but it would make it incredibly difficult for states and counties to conduct routine voter list maintenance like removing dead people or voters who don’t live there any longer.”

McConnell also brought up how Democrats in the House were currently in the process of reviewing the election results from Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, setting up a potential scenario by which Democrats could overturn the election result.

“This bill would also expand the scope of this newly partisan FEC—more power over more of American’s speech, more mandates for private groups to publicize their list of supporters,” McConnell said. “Associational privacy is a core liberty. It’s been championed heroically by organizations like the NAACP. This bill is such an attack on citizen’s privacy that even the left-wing ACLU opposes this bill.”

WATCH:

Democrats’ attempted elections takeover has state and local officials sounding alarms. They say its unworkable provisions would invite total chaos in our elections. Even Democratic officials.

No wonder Democrats want to talk about everything except what’s actually in their bill. pic.twitter.com/8IL3M1Z1Ie

— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) March 24, 2021

TRANSCRIPT:

MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATE MINORITY LEADER: From what the majority leader is just said, the state bills that he refers to, I believe Senator Blunt has mentioned only two of them have passed and they had absolutely nothing to do with suppressing the vote. It’s also noteworthy that this is a solution in search of a problem. The turnout in 2020 was up 7%. The turnout in the 2020 election was the highest since 1900. States are not engaging and trying to suppress voters whatsoever. This is clearly an effort by one party to rewrite the rules of our political system. But even more immediately, it would create an implementation nightmare, as Senator Blunt pointed out that would drown state and local officials who run elections. This proposal needs all the scrutiny it can get. And I’m glad we’re all here to give it that scrutiny. This legislation would forcibly rewrite the election laws of all 50 states from here in Washington. Popular policies like voter ID requirements would be banned, unless states neutered them with loopholes.

Meanwhile, unpopular and absurd practices like ballot harvesting, where paid political operatives can show up carrying stacks of other people’s ballots would not just be allowed, it would be mandatory. Washington would mandate that every state and county in America adopt same day voter registration with minimal safeguards, but it would make it incredibly difficult for states and counties to conduct routine voter list maintenance like removing dead people or voters who don’t live there any longer. Then there’s the whole question of political speech. Refereeing campaigns and policing speech or sensitive tasks. Appropriately, the FEC was designed after Watergate to be bi-partisan and even split three to three. So let me do all on that for a minute. After Watergate, my party, the Republican party was just about wiped out. The overwhelming Democratic majorities could have done anything they wanted to.

It never occurred to them that the Federal Election Commission, set up to police how we run campaigns, would be made a partisan entity. They could have done it the. Now we’re in a 50/50 Senate and a narrow majority in the House, and this audacious move wants to turn the judge of our democratic process into a partisan prosecutor? Talk about shame. Anybody ought to be feeling any shame around here, it’s turning the FEC into a partisan prosecutor, the majority controlled by the president’s party to harass and intimidate the other side. That’s what you ought to be ashamed about. Over in the House Administration Committee, we’re having an example right now of how that could happen. The Democratic majority is trying to overturn a certified election result. I want to ask how many of our friends on the other side here, just arguing last month and the month before that certifying a state election was the gold standard. It’s over after a certification.

Apparently, not in the House. Of course, the Constitution gives the House to determine who will sit there. That doesn’t mean they should go against everything they were preaching in the last two months about the sanctity of state certification and simply ram through someone who lost the election, according to officials in Iowa. That’s what happens, I would say to my Democratic friends, that’s what happens when you let partisan bodies regulate elections. And that is certainly not what we need at the FEC. And that’s what among other things, you ought to be ashamed about. This bill would also expand the scope of this newly partisan FEC. More power over more of American’s speech, more mandates for private groups to publicize their list of supporters. Associational privacy is a core liberty. It’s been championed heroically by organizations like the NAACP. This bill is such an attack on citizen’s privacy that even the left-wing ACLU opposes this bill.

These are big picture problems. But on a practical level, even if you disagree with everything I just said, the fact is, as Senator Blunt pointed out this legislation, it’s just not ready for prime time. It’s an invitation to chaos. Chaos. State level election officials, including Democrats are signing alarms left and right. This messaging bill would create a nightmare if it actually became law. It would mandate brand new voting machines that not even been produced yet. It mandates something that doesn’t exist, let alone certified and approved. It would force every state to rush through big changes like inventing new, unsecure, automated telephone systems to register voters. I’m sure prank callers would have a field day with that. This thing even has something to say about the paper on which local officials would be able to print their ballots and the kind of envelope adhesive they have to use. That’s a really important thing for the federal government to dictate. What kind of adhesive they have to use. What a great idea.

Just the prospect of all these silly new mandates has already keeping local officials up at night. And that includes by the way, Democratic local officials who conduct elections. And of course, this thing would even put American taxpayers on the hook for transfer payments. Don’t be kidded into thinking there’s not federal money in this bill, transfer payments that would go directly to fund political campaigns. Taxpayer funded bumper stickers and attack ads, what a great idea. The American people are really going to like that. Taking their money and spending it on attack ads, bumper stickers, buttons, and balloons.

Look, even liberals who like this bill better than I do [sarcasm] are admitting all the practicalities needed to go back to the drawing board. This is nowhere near ready for prime time. It’s an invitation to total chaos. So I’ll close with this. Senator Klobuchar, I had your job after the 2000 election. Chris Dodd and I teamed up to pass the Help America Vote Act. It was a major voting bill. What it did was it tried to encourage making it easier to vote, but harder to cheat. It was a combination of things.

Well-balanced. It passed 92-2. 92-2. That’s the kind of consensus that can be built when you approach a subject like the one that’s before us today in the right way. By contrast this bill did not receive a single vote in the House [by Republicans]. And I predict it will not in the Senate, should we unfortunately have to vote on it. Both Republicans and Democrats voted against it in the House. Now we’ve just seen two consecutive presidential elections, 2016 and 2020, where chunks of Americans on both the left on the right took turns refusing to accept the result when their side lost. We can’t afford to go further down this road. We should be finding ways to rebuild trust, not destroy it further. But that’s exactly what a partisan power grab would guarantee. And that’s what S1 is all about. Thank you, Madam Chair.

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