H.R. 1 and S. 1 would dramatically alter the First Amendment protections that Americans have enjoyed since the founding of our country.
February 17, 2021
The Honorable Charles Schumer
Majority Leader
United States Senate
S-221, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader
United States Senate
S-230, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
United States House of Representatives
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Minority Leader
United States House of Representatives
H-204, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader McCarthy:
On behalf of over 2.3 million members of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), I am writing to express our strong opposition to H.R. 1 and its Senate counterpart, S.1, the socalled “For the People Act of 2021,” which should instead be titled “For More Federal Government Control Act”
This legislation – 791 pages – would, if enacted, effect a monstrous federal preemption and takeover of the election authorities and processes of the states and assault First Amendment rights and protections of free political speech.
The legislation is carefully written to appear sensible but is in fact deceptive in its effort to assert federal control over voting in our respective states and to build a government record of individual American’s exercise of our God-given and Constitutional right of free political speech. In short, this legislation is “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
There are numerous “egregious components” in this legislation.
First, this legislation would be in effect a federal takeover of how states conduct elections for Presidents, Senators and Representatives, thereby inherently forcing voting election procedures for state and local office to conform to bill’s prescription for the election of Members of Congress.
Here is how the bill deceptively uses the Constitution and the limited prerogative it provides the Congress with respect to the election of Members of the House and Senate. Turning to the Constitution, Article, Section 4: “The Times, Places, and Manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.”
The bill grabs the phrase that “the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such regulations,” and effectively preempts in excruciating detail how the states should conduct the election of Members of Congress. The result is to put the states in the position of administratively having to conform to the provisions of H.R.1/S.1, rather than face the added costs and confusion of having to maintain their pre-existing law and procedures. In effect, the legislation unconstitutionally constricts and overrides the sovereignty of the states for the conduct of elections.
Here are some examples of the legislation’s proposed takeover of all elections when state and local elections coincide with the federal election:
o Undermines states election oversight, like efforts to clean up old voter rolls.
o Prohibits requiring a state issued ID to obtain a mail in ballot and permits individuals to sign a sworn statement as to their identify in lieu of an official ID.
o Virtually eliminates any restrictions on vote-by-mail.
o Requires states to offer online registration.
o Requires states to allow same day registration and voting.
o Requires “automatic’ voter registration by the state of those who would otherwise be eligible to register to vote.
o Effectively permits “voter harvesting” – picking up and delivering bundles of votes — by making it criminal to interfere with those “assisting others to vote.”
o Enables partisan control of the Federal Elections Commission by reducing the Commission from 6 to 5 members, thereby effectively facilitating one party oversight of federal elections and campaign finance laws.
This legislation also assaults our First Amendment right to freedom of political speech. In its effort to go after donors to conservative organizations, it would subject citizens who contribute to nonprofit organizations to political harassment and intimidation by making their personal information available in a searchable government database. In this connection, it would also force groups to publicly identify their supporters on the face of the ads themselves.
In its effort to further curtail political free speech by Americans about legislative issues, it would expand the definition of “electioneering communications” – historically limited to large-scale TV and radio campaigns targeted to the electorate in a campaign for office – to include online advertising that bears no relation to an election. In other words, letters, websites, emails, cell texts, social media messaging, and other online commentary on legislative issues by concerned American citizens and organizations would be redefined as “electioneering communications” – subject to some type of federal oversight.
In conclusion, this legislation must never be enacted, because it is intended both to subvert the Constitution and the essential federalism of our republic to bring one-party control of our nation, and to limit freedoms as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
Sincerely,
Bob Carlstrom
President, AMAC Action