Inflation is at a 40-year high, an economic recession may be just around the corner, the president’s approval rating is plummeting, and the 2022 midterm elections are less than four months away. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?
At least, that must be what the Biden administration is thinking. Why else would a U.S. president launch a thinly veiled get-out-the-vote campaign designed to give the Democrats an electoral advantage?
The president’s plan was outlined in Executive Order 14019, which ultimately directs all federal agencies to do what they can to increase voter registration and turnout, including by working with a select group of third-party organizations “approved” by the White House. Sounds harmless on its face, until you consider the fact that it is being carried out by political appointees whose job security literally depends on Democrats being reelected in 2022 and 2024, and that the person charged with collecting the plans and leading this effort is President Joe Biden’s domestic policy advisor, Susan Rice.
Even more concerning, when pressed for more information about these plans through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from the Foundation for Government Accountability, the Biden administration has opted to stay silent. If the plans are harmless, why not share them with Congress and the American people? It makes you wonder what they’re hiding.
But even without the details publicly outlined, it’s not difficult to see what the executive order hopes to accomplish. By interjecting the might of the federal government — and all of its taxpayer-funded offices and resources — into the state-run voter registration process, the Biden administration hopes to drive out the Democrat vote in both the midterm elections and for generations to come.
We’ve seen a similar scheme once before. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife funneled millions of dollars to state and local election officials for the administration of the 2020 election. And as it turns out, the vast majority of those dollars were spent in localities that ultimately voted for Joe Biden. The not-so-secret attempt to drive out Democrat votes through a targeted distribution of resources was seen as highly unethical. And thanks to a flurry of new laws passed in more than 20 states, it is now also illegal across much of the country. Yet now, these so-called “Zuckerbucks” have proven to be just a precursor to an even larger scheme: the president’s use of “Bidenbucks” — the use of taxpayer dollars to meet the same end.
Scheme Already Underway
Sadly, the scheme is already underway. Several federal agencies have initiated plans to designate their state offices as voting registration agencies, including the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2,300 American Job Centers. But it’s imperative that these centers remain non-partisan — free from even the appearance of becoming “vote mills” that churn out political support in exchange for work.
The same should go for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has also announced plans to designate Public Housing Agencies as voting registration agencies. “Votes in exchange for benefits” should not be the slogan of any federal agency.
Court Orders the Administration to Release Info
There is good news, though. The Biden administration’s plans have not gone unnoticed. The Foundation for Government Accountability has filed a lawsuit to compel the U.S. Department of Justice to respond to our initial FOIA requests. Last week, the Federal District Court ordered the DOJ to provide us all requested documents required under the FOIA request before the midterm elections.
Also, legislation has recently been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to prevent the Biden administration’s plans to take over state-run elections from moving forward. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., would prohibit federal agencies from using federal funding to carry out any plans to comply with the president’s order to use the immense resources of federal agencies and their state offices to carry out an unprecedented get-out-the-vote effort designed to benefit the left.
It will also prohibit agencies from partnering with politically like-minded outside groups hand-selected by Susan Rice to carry out Executive Order 14019. While it’s unlikely that it would become law before the upcoming election, this legislation is an important step toward ensuring our elections are free, fair, and secured against unconstitutional influence — in this case, from the White House itself.
President Biden may be feeling the pressure build as his economic policies have continued to fall flat with the American people, but that does not justify an illegal executive power grab to attempt to keep his party, and himself, in control. And executive branch attempts to systematically affect elections for generations to come must be stopped at both the state and federal level.
Tarren Bragdon is president and CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability.