- Jun 6, 2007
- 852
- 483
- 910
This Democrat "Freedom To Vote" bill (hereinafter FTV bill), this Democrat Election reform bill, is atrociously bad it is not fair to the states and it has many provisions that are simply not good it should be permanently scrapped as quickly as any bill could be so scrapped! The FTV bill's Section 1801 attempts to wade into the voter identification controversy occurring in many parts of the nation in a very flawed manner. This section mandates that states accept as a voter having met the voter identification requirement if another person swears out in writing that they have known the person seeking to vote for six months and this person is who he or she purports to be, the basic concept is legitimate however the bill should mandate that the person vouching for the identity present a valid phot identification since the witness is being used to prove identity being responsible requires the witness to prove identity. This section legitimately requires states that have a voter identification requirement provide registered voters with a qualifying identification at "no cost", the flaw in the bill's mandate is that it requires states to provide "every" future voter registrant with a qualifying identification document at "no charge", this is an unnecessary and wasteful mandate because many if not most registrants will have a state issued driver's license or a state issued non-driver identification card they don't need another identification card from the voter registration department this is just a wasteful Federal mandate! This provision unfairly interferes on state rights if states want to require a photo identification requirement to stop against fraudulent voting that is their business this FTV bill's mandate that states accept as valid identification such things as: a bank card, a debit card, a fish or hunting license, a medicare card, a bank statement, a utility bill et al is illegitimate.
The FTV bill's Section 1901 is a bad provision in part and should not become law. This provision in part criminalizes makes a misdemeanor efforts by a person to remove a person from the voter registration rolls if the intent is to disqualify from registration an eligible voter. It is a bad idea to criminalize such behavior citizens that are trying to clean or make accurate voter registration rolls are doing a good thing that is a public service it stops fraud and improves the integrity of our election system in the American public view; the fact that there is a fraudulent intent element for this crime doesn't change the wrongfulness of creating this crime it would be easy for a District Attorney's Office to allege bad intent it is hard to prove where people are or are not living look at all the litigation that transpires over where candidates live, a DA's Office could often find research flaws to use as evidence of a crime which shouldn't be allowed from a fairness standpoint.
The FTV bill's Section 2001 is a bad, bad provision and should not become law. This section creates a new crime Sec. 612 Hindering, Interfering with or Preventing registering to vote; the law is too vague and subjective it criminalizes corrupt hindering or interfering with a person seeking to register to vote or a person helping another to register to vote. But what does "corrupt hindering or interfering" entirely mean are advertisements or handouts about voting registration that turn out to not be one hundred accurate such. We want people to try to stop multiple registrations to vote it is good public policy to try to empower people to stop our nation's voter rolls from being and becoming failed protections against voter fraud, a big part of our nation's current political problem is respectable people thinking widespread voter fraud because the nation's voter rolls are inundated with inaccuracies, that is multiple voter registrations by the same person. This is a bad move by Congress creating this crime because it will intimidate and stop citizens from trying to stop and fix this voter registration problem we have in America.
The FTV bill's provision Section 3101 is a bad provision that will obstruct efforts to stop possible fraud in voting and stop appearances of fraud in voting. This provision creates another crime related to our election system, it creates Sec. 613 "Harassment of Election Workers" where it is a crime to intimidate, threaten or coerce election workers in the course of their duty. This new crime will lead to a suppression of minority party poll watchers doing their job to stop impropriety at polling sites - things like asking people walking around poll sites where the voting machines are to identify themselves and if they don't have an official election worker job telling them they must leave or the cops will be called to arrest them and things like stopping partisan campaigning type of behavior in the poling site because this new crime will create fear in them that they could be arrested and charged with a crime over their advocacy efforts.
The FTV bill's section 3202 is a bad provision and shouldn't become law. First what it does is it makes voter intimidation (18 USC Sec. 594) a felony crime raising it up from a misdemeanor crime; there is no good reason to do this we are not living in the 1950's and 1960's where voter intimidation was a real problem. Next what the provision does is it adds two more felony crimes to section 594; one being "False Statements Regarding Federal Elections". It is not responsible or fair or good to be criminalizing false statements in an election environment in America that is very complex and very easy to be confused over. What will be the standards for voter identification, what will be the standards for mail-in ballots and what will be the standards for curing improperly filled out mail-in ballots, etc. This new crime could be used to net a lot of people that have no criminal intent that are just trying to operate in a complicated election system. What is with the felony crime bent in this FTV bill it is unnecessary and wasteful of the criminal justice system resources for Congress to be stretching so far to be making all this election system behavior felonies, misdemeanor grading is sufficient. This provision also makes it wrong for a candidate to make a false statement about a public endorsement and then gives people a private right of action to file a claim in Federal Court to remedy this wrong specifically enjoin that candidate from making such a claim; what an imprudent use of federal judicial resources getting Federal Judges involved in such minutia about elections.
The FTV bill's section 3601 hamstring's candidates, political parties and citizens from trying to stop fraud in our nation's election system. What this section does is it limits challenges on voter registrations and actual voting to challenges that only offer first person knowledge of the proof of wrongdoing unless the challenger is a state or local election official. This will shield fraud in voter registration and actual voting because this is a very high proof burden remember the candidates and parties are the principle ones to stand to lose from this fraud it is unfair to them to be limited to only being able to present first person evidence of fraud to prove fraud. Further, this provision seems to preclude citizenship fraud challenges that is a challenge based on the fact that a registered voter or a person that actually voted is a citizen of a foreign country not a U.S. citizen unless the challenge comes from an election official and this is a large and critical area of fraud that Congress is saying is off limits to challenge over. This provision also mandates an eight feet buffer rule for poll watchers this rule could obstruct a justice pursuit on the issue of signature checks that is comparing the voter's signature to the signature on the voting rolls; to identify not matching signatures one may have to get closer than eight feet.
The FTV bill's section 3702 prohibiting states from restricting distribution of food and beverages at polling stations is an ill conceived policy and should be scrapped. Congress should want fair elections and allowing candidates and parties to give out food and drink to in-line voters which have the practical effect of generating good will and possibly favoritism toward the donors and possibly influencing the vote is facilitating unfairness. Sometimes voters have to wait in line to vote for a long-time and providing them some food and drink falls into the category of providing for their health and safety; but the distribution should be done by poll workers so the food distribution isn't a factor in the vote outcome. The issue should be left to the states and the states rules should be if the poll workers do not have food or drink to give to voters in line, a political campaign can give the poll workers the food and drink to be distributed but the poll workers must do the distribution the food can only be of a type described as prepared packaged snacks and the amount of food and drink given can only be enough that the voter can consume while standing in line and the campaign must take back any unused food and drink not distributed by the poll workers at the end of the day.
The FTV bill's section 3802 Federal Campaign Reporting of Foreign Contacts is a bad idea it is bad policy, highly successful people who you want to run for public office and their families will often know powerful foreign people that may have knowledge about other candidates and it is just normal human interaction that they would disclose it too their friendly candidate and the candidates family if they were friends with a family member and if they don't report it it is a crime a felony no less. This policy will net good people in crimes that are not about criminal behavior and will deter powerful good people from running for elected office to protect themselves and their families from criminal liability.
This whole just recently commenced campaign to pass their election reform bills by the Democrats where they are publicly racking Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema to get them to agree to vote for a carve out on the Senator filibuster rule for election reform bills so only fifty-one Senate votes are needed to end debate and bring the bill up for a passage vote is really very foolhardy by the Democrats because do they really want to pass this Freedom To Vote bill into law? It is an atrociously bad bill! America has observed all the Democrat Senators in the Senate for years many for many years and we know you stand up for the low income, disabled and those that are not powerful but this bill does so many things that don't help these constituents they just hurt the system they make it more corrupt and obstruct efforts to fix the corruption and unduly hurt people! The media could really do a service to the American people and the Democrat party by going up to all the individual Democrat Senators and ask them on the public record if this Freedom To Vote Act bill comes up for a vote are you really going to vote for passage this bill that has a,b,c and x,y,z bad provisions do you want this disaster piece of legislation on your hands on your reputation? I wouldn't be surprised if not even forty Democrat Senators are willing to go on camera and significantly harm their reputations by saying they would vote for this dog of a bill!
The FTV bill's Section 1901 is a bad provision in part and should not become law. This provision in part criminalizes makes a misdemeanor efforts by a person to remove a person from the voter registration rolls if the intent is to disqualify from registration an eligible voter. It is a bad idea to criminalize such behavior citizens that are trying to clean or make accurate voter registration rolls are doing a good thing that is a public service it stops fraud and improves the integrity of our election system in the American public view; the fact that there is a fraudulent intent element for this crime doesn't change the wrongfulness of creating this crime it would be easy for a District Attorney's Office to allege bad intent it is hard to prove where people are or are not living look at all the litigation that transpires over where candidates live, a DA's Office could often find research flaws to use as evidence of a crime which shouldn't be allowed from a fairness standpoint.
The FTV bill's Section 2001 is a bad, bad provision and should not become law. This section creates a new crime Sec. 612 Hindering, Interfering with or Preventing registering to vote; the law is too vague and subjective it criminalizes corrupt hindering or interfering with a person seeking to register to vote or a person helping another to register to vote. But what does "corrupt hindering or interfering" entirely mean are advertisements or handouts about voting registration that turn out to not be one hundred accurate such. We want people to try to stop multiple registrations to vote it is good public policy to try to empower people to stop our nation's voter rolls from being and becoming failed protections against voter fraud, a big part of our nation's current political problem is respectable people thinking widespread voter fraud because the nation's voter rolls are inundated with inaccuracies, that is multiple voter registrations by the same person. This is a bad move by Congress creating this crime because it will intimidate and stop citizens from trying to stop and fix this voter registration problem we have in America.
The FTV bill's provision Section 3101 is a bad provision that will obstruct efforts to stop possible fraud in voting and stop appearances of fraud in voting. This provision creates another crime related to our election system, it creates Sec. 613 "Harassment of Election Workers" where it is a crime to intimidate, threaten or coerce election workers in the course of their duty. This new crime will lead to a suppression of minority party poll watchers doing their job to stop impropriety at polling sites - things like asking people walking around poll sites where the voting machines are to identify themselves and if they don't have an official election worker job telling them they must leave or the cops will be called to arrest them and things like stopping partisan campaigning type of behavior in the poling site because this new crime will create fear in them that they could be arrested and charged with a crime over their advocacy efforts.
The FTV bill's section 3202 is a bad provision and shouldn't become law. First what it does is it makes voter intimidation (18 USC Sec. 594) a felony crime raising it up from a misdemeanor crime; there is no good reason to do this we are not living in the 1950's and 1960's where voter intimidation was a real problem. Next what the provision does is it adds two more felony crimes to section 594; one being "False Statements Regarding Federal Elections". It is not responsible or fair or good to be criminalizing false statements in an election environment in America that is very complex and very easy to be confused over. What will be the standards for voter identification, what will be the standards for mail-in ballots and what will be the standards for curing improperly filled out mail-in ballots, etc. This new crime could be used to net a lot of people that have no criminal intent that are just trying to operate in a complicated election system. What is with the felony crime bent in this FTV bill it is unnecessary and wasteful of the criminal justice system resources for Congress to be stretching so far to be making all this election system behavior felonies, misdemeanor grading is sufficient. This provision also makes it wrong for a candidate to make a false statement about a public endorsement and then gives people a private right of action to file a claim in Federal Court to remedy this wrong specifically enjoin that candidate from making such a claim; what an imprudent use of federal judicial resources getting Federal Judges involved in such minutia about elections.
The FTV bill's section 3601 hamstring's candidates, political parties and citizens from trying to stop fraud in our nation's election system. What this section does is it limits challenges on voter registrations and actual voting to challenges that only offer first person knowledge of the proof of wrongdoing unless the challenger is a state or local election official. This will shield fraud in voter registration and actual voting because this is a very high proof burden remember the candidates and parties are the principle ones to stand to lose from this fraud it is unfair to them to be limited to only being able to present first person evidence of fraud to prove fraud. Further, this provision seems to preclude citizenship fraud challenges that is a challenge based on the fact that a registered voter or a person that actually voted is a citizen of a foreign country not a U.S. citizen unless the challenge comes from an election official and this is a large and critical area of fraud that Congress is saying is off limits to challenge over. This provision also mandates an eight feet buffer rule for poll watchers this rule could obstruct a justice pursuit on the issue of signature checks that is comparing the voter's signature to the signature on the voting rolls; to identify not matching signatures one may have to get closer than eight feet.
The FTV bill's section 3702 prohibiting states from restricting distribution of food and beverages at polling stations is an ill conceived policy and should be scrapped. Congress should want fair elections and allowing candidates and parties to give out food and drink to in-line voters which have the practical effect of generating good will and possibly favoritism toward the donors and possibly influencing the vote is facilitating unfairness. Sometimes voters have to wait in line to vote for a long-time and providing them some food and drink falls into the category of providing for their health and safety; but the distribution should be done by poll workers so the food distribution isn't a factor in the vote outcome. The issue should be left to the states and the states rules should be if the poll workers do not have food or drink to give to voters in line, a political campaign can give the poll workers the food and drink to be distributed but the poll workers must do the distribution the food can only be of a type described as prepared packaged snacks and the amount of food and drink given can only be enough that the voter can consume while standing in line and the campaign must take back any unused food and drink not distributed by the poll workers at the end of the day.
The FTV bill's section 3802 Federal Campaign Reporting of Foreign Contacts is a bad idea it is bad policy, highly successful people who you want to run for public office and their families will often know powerful foreign people that may have knowledge about other candidates and it is just normal human interaction that they would disclose it too their friendly candidate and the candidates family if they were friends with a family member and if they don't report it it is a crime a felony no less. This policy will net good people in crimes that are not about criminal behavior and will deter powerful good people from running for elected office to protect themselves and their families from criminal liability.
This whole just recently commenced campaign to pass their election reform bills by the Democrats where they are publicly racking Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema to get them to agree to vote for a carve out on the Senator filibuster rule for election reform bills so only fifty-one Senate votes are needed to end debate and bring the bill up for a passage vote is really very foolhardy by the Democrats because do they really want to pass this Freedom To Vote bill into law? It is an atrociously bad bill! America has observed all the Democrat Senators in the Senate for years many for many years and we know you stand up for the low income, disabled and those that are not powerful but this bill does so many things that don't help these constituents they just hurt the system they make it more corrupt and obstruct efforts to fix the corruption and unduly hurt people! The media could really do a service to the American people and the Democrat party by going up to all the individual Democrat Senators and ask them on the public record if this Freedom To Vote Act bill comes up for a vote are you really going to vote for passage this bill that has a,b,c and x,y,z bad provisions do you want this disaster piece of legislation on your hands on your reputation? I wouldn't be surprised if not even forty Democrat Senators are willing to go on camera and significantly harm their reputations by saying they would vote for this dog of a bill!
