President Biden's backdoor plan to influence elections
By: Rep. Red Budd (R-NC) and Tarren Bragdon (TheHill)
What does Joe Biden know about elections that he's not telling the country? Joe Biden has forced the entire Executive Branch of the Federal government to become involved in elections. And all these Federal agencies are run by political appointees.
Joe Biden is threatening to cross the Rubicon into using the Federal government for electioneering. Which is illegal BTW.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Democrats' "voting rights" legislation is finally dead. With the Senate's failure to end the filibuster, President Biden is unable to achieve his top priority of overruling state election integrity reforms and mandating deeply concerning voting practices nationwide. Yet the president still has a backdoor plan to influence elections. He's using the vast and powerful federal bureaucracy to register and mobilize voters nationwide.
Last March, President Biden signed an executive order on "Promoting Access to Voting." It directed federal agencies—more than 400 exist—to develop plans to "expand citizens' opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process." Everything from the Department of Defense to the Environmental Protection Agency to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is covered by this mandate. They must direct voters to state and federal registration websites, distribute registration and vote-by-mail applications, assist people in completing them, and allow third-party organizations to register voters on agency premises.
This is unprecedented. Federal officials serving a Democratic administration have effectively been dragooned into getting out the vote. Their actions have the potential to affect the voting habits of tens of millions of people, if not more. Few things are more inappropriate for the federal government.
While that's bad enough, what's worse is that the White House is hiding the details. Agencies were given 200 days to submit their plans, yet since that deadline passed in September, hardly any information has been publicly released. While the White House has provided high-level descriptions of 14 department-level plans, the specifics are nowhere to be found. Even the top-line notes are deeply concerning. For instance, the Department of Education is preparing a "tool kit of resources and strategies" to be shared with 67 million students. That includes millions who are or will be of voting age by the 2022 and 2024 elections. The contents of that toolkit remain veiled.
Transparency is needed, given the stakes. The Foundation for Government Accountability has filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests with federal agencies, yet the response has been stonewalling at every turn. That's why, on Jan. 19, one of us (Rep. Budd) submitted a letter to the White House demanding details on the administration's plans. Signed by 36 members of Congress, the letter outlines the major concerns posed by the president's executive order.
First, why is the White House forcing agencies with no responsibility for enforcing election laws to become intimately involved with voting? That raises obvious concerns about political interference in elections using the federal government's significant manpower and resources. Nothing like this has ever been attempted, for good reason. It smacks of manipulation and partisan meddling.
Second, what third-party organizations will agencies allow on their premises? The executive order simply says they must be "approved" and "non-partisan," yet that's hardly exhaustive or even descriptive criteria. There is a disturbing possibility that ideologically motivated groups could get the nod, since agencies are charged with "soliciting and facilitating" third-party involvement.
Third, why does the executive order bear a striking similarity to the election plan drafted by the left-wing group Demos? Released in December 2020, it called on the Biden administration to turn the federal bureaucracy into "voter registration agencies." Three months later, after hiring several Demos leaders, the president signed the executive order.
The Demos plan also demands that the Department of Justice be weaponized to stifle opponents of such policies, which the Biden administration has also embraced. The department issuing states, including Texas and Georgia, that have passed reforms making it easy to vote but hard to cheat. It's also issuing politicized guidance designed to bar further state action. So much overlap with a left-wing wish list further taints the Biden administration's actions.
The congressional letter asks the Biden administration to provide copies of all agency plans created under the president's executive order. The American people deserve to know what agencies are planning to do, what they are already doing, and why the federal government is doing anything at all.
The potential for abuse is rampant. Fresh off the Biden administration's 25 percent increase in food stamp benefits, is the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program, helping register recipients to vote? Is the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has implemented the Biden administration's Medicaid expansion to cover an additional 17 million able-bodied adults, helping them complete mail-in ballot applications? Americans deserve answers to these and many other questions.
The death of Democrats' legislation in Congress is far from the end of the fight to prevent fraud and preserve election integrity. The Biden administration's attempt to transform the federal bureaucracy into an electoral tool is equally concerning, if not more so. The White House must come clean on what's happening and disclose its plans immediately. And for the sake of Americans' trust in our republic, the Biden administration must be stopped.
Ted Budd represents North Carolina's 13th District. Tarren Bragdon is president and CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability.
Tags
Who is online
565 visitors
Democrats are not behaving like a political party on the ascendency. The Democratic Party is in danger of fading into history. And Democrats in the know do know that. That's the only rational explanation for Democrat's frenzied attempts to rig elections.
That is bizarre, since I personally know of nobody in the real world who would ever consider switching from D to R after the last several years of watching how callous, destructive, and reckless the new Republican Party is. Quite the opposite in fact.
There are more Independents than Democrats; by a lot. Unaffiliated voters are the largest voting block. Independents may be required to declare affiliation to participate in primary elections but they aren't party loyalists.
So, yes, Independent voters do tend to switch affiliation quite often depending upon whether or not they wish to vote in primary elections.
So, yes, Independent voters do tend to switch affiliation quite often
To be clear, I don’t know the political affiliation of everyone I know and many may be independent. What I do know is that almost nobody I personally associate with has an ounce of respect for the current state of the Republican Party. If they are independent they surely won’t be leaning right in any election soon.
How about we wait till November and see how it plays out? {smile}
I know quite a few Rs who would vote for whoever is nominated by the GOP. But I also am pleased to see that there is very little defense of Trump going on in my circle. Very little support for Biden, but also no real defending Trump. It always comes down to 'Trump is an asshole but I liked his policies'.
That is why I suggest that Rs eject Trump and find a halfway decent human being to lead the party ... it would be trivially easy to find one who supports Trump's policies since Trump clearly was playing the GOP playbook while in office.
That is why I suggest that Rs eject Trump and find a halfway decent human being to lead the party
The Party won’t let themselves leave him, like they’ve left their constituents. I’m not trying to make any predictions, I’m just saying that support for Republican anything is virtually nonexistent in my reality.
They aren’t “Trumps” policies. He just adopted them. They are conservative policies, principles if you will. Principles that have been around for a lot longer than trump.
Limited government
Individual freedom
Secure borders
Peace through strength .... just to name a few
Principles that draw the scorn of your garden variety liberal regardless of who espouses them.
Now there’s a real shocker .......
To those who keep insisting that the Democrats are in such disarray that they are abandoning ship, it should be a shocker. That is not happening - to your dismay.
Correct. Obviously you did not read what I wrote:
Not what I said but it is telling that you felt the need to share that.
Sounds like you’re worried about it.
Then what the hell is this?
Registering more voters is a good thing. I support motor voter laws and such but I'm not sure how the feds would do it. I've registered over 100 voters over the years. As long as voters can register with any party of their choice there's no problem.
Should US Customs and Border Protection be required to coordinate with private political organizations to register voters? What about the FBI? Or the Social Security Administration?
Biden's executive order allows private political organizations to operate under the auspices of a Federal agency. And it is not illegal for private political organizations to engage in electioneering as a part of a registration drive. Will Federal agencies be required to turn over information collected from people the agency interacts with to political parties?
Biden is using a backdoor gimmick to allow the Federal government to ostensibly manipulate elections. Agencies like the EPA or DOE aren't allowed to participate in partisan politics but those agencies are now allowed to directly engage with voters on issue politics. The EPA cannot promote a specific candidate but the EPA is now allowed to promote a party platform using issue politics.
Like I said I'm not sure how the feds would do voter registration. Likely it would just be a chance to register when you go to the IRS or Social Security office. Kind of like the stack of registration forms available at the post office.
Encouraging more people to vote is not manipulating elections.
The seeded opinion explains that. The Federal government will coordinate with private political entities. Biden is opening the backdoor to give a preferential advantage to political activists. Democrats affirmative action toward elections isn't about equality and isn't really about equity, either.
When I've registered voters I have always registered Republicans as well as Democrats and Independents. I do, however, point out to the independents that The American Independent Party is NOT independent and that they should register 'decline to state' if they want to be independent. I reserve the right to electioneer while registering voters however and, as you pointed out, it's not illegal. Lots of federal workers are Republicans too so...
Federal employees are not allowed to engage in electioneering while on duty. Some agencies limit political activity of their employees off duty, as well. So, Biden's EO will require Federal agencies to coordinate with private political entities. Biden has opened a backdoor to allow Federal agencies to get around prohibitions on intruding into the political process.
Biden is flirting with violating the Hatch Act. Biden is pushing Clinton's neoliberal public/private partnership (bad) ideas to the limit.
The way things are going it’s their only hope to save seats in 2022.
Cheating .....
It's not necessarily cheating. Democrats use laws and legal means to rig elections. As long as it is legal, it is not cheating. That's how neoliberals (in both parties) do things.
Manipulation, cheating ....potato, potahto .... 😉
This will not end well for the folks who would perpetrate such a scam.
The tree of liberty will get refreshed if required. Best not be on that branch if/when that happens.
Help me out here. I feel like there isn’t enough coffee to help me understand this. What is the scam?
There isn't one. Just the old hive mind/drone babbling.
From the article......................which some won't read
Perhaps you have enough coffee to read the title of the seed and the body within. Get back to me if still confused
Copy and paste doesn’t help. Why would it?
And I read the article.
I already did that. Vague accusations and questions don’t help.
If you see a scam, it should be a simple matter to say what it is in one sentence. Simply getting out the vote is hardly a scam.
You asked what the scam was. I provided it from the article and I wasn't referring to you about reading.
"Copy and paste doesn’t help. Why would it?
And I read the article."
He was referring to me about NOT READING the article. It was a dig at ME. Something another poster 'started' which JJ and others have continued, to dig at me.
Plus, there is no scam.
So, using completely unrelated Federal agencies, as noted in the article, and requoted by Jim, is fine with you?
And all you did was copy and paste. Can you not summarize it in your own words?
Honestly, it seems like a straightforward question. I’m willing to listen to an argument that there is an actual scam going on, but not in the form of just cutting and pasting sections of the article. I think I have made it plain by now that I don’t think the article makes a very good argument in support of that claim.
i don’t follow all the interactions between other members. If you say something in a reply to me, there is a good chance I will assume it’s directed at me.
First, you don’t even know how they would be used. It seems premature to complain about it. Second, federal agencies are used all the time to promote all sorts of agendas that may not be directly related to their core mission. So what? How is that a “scam?”
Seems to me Sparty has covered it pretty well. My thoughts exactly. Just more GovCo control over something that doesn't need it.
That good?
Control? What control?
Should have said "involvement". And we know what happens when GovCo gets involved.
Sorry 'bout that.
The article explains it very well. So you disagree? Fair enough but I disagree with you.
It makes no sense. Agencies like the DOD and EPA dealing with election law? Ridiculous IMO. They have their mandates. Concentrate on those and not something completely non-mandated.
Common sense to me.
I’m not saying you’re wrong about that, but I am saying that ship has sailed long ago.
Don’t disagree that the ship has sailed but that doesn’t mean it can’t brought back and/or not allowed to sail further out ....
But I mean it literally sounds like they’re just trying to help people to vote. I would think everybody could get behind that.
That just doesn’t sound like a bad thing. It doesn’t sound very different or worse than registering to vote at DMV or registering for the draft at the post office.
Opinions do vary.
Mine is that the process to vote is already readily available to anyone with a modicum of desire to vote.
Not sure why the DOD, EPA, etc need to get involved. I just don’t see it.
So what? Since when is it a bad thing to encourage people to vote? It’s an especially good thing when government encourages people to vote. This complaint is irrational.
Again, that sounds like a good thing.
Maybe because various agencies interact with different demographics in myriad ways. What should they do instead? Invent a whole new government agency for getting out the vote? Seems more efficient to do it the way they are.
Fortunately, we have tons of regulations about what is permissible and what is not when it comes to elections.
This is the fear. Just be honest and say it out loud. You’re not really worried about “fraud” or “election integrity.” Republicans (in this case, but on other days, they will be Democrats) hate it when the opposition party does things to help people and then those people go vote. But that’s literally how the system is supposed to work.
The solution is not to discourage easier voting, and it’s not to stop government from helping people while encouraging voting. The solution is to do a better job of helping those people.
One of these days a group of politicians is going to worry more about helping people than they do about getting elected. The consequence of that will be that they get elected more.
The Federal government does not have a mechanism to register voters. Voter registration is really supervised and managed by local government. Collecting registration cards is only a small part of the process. Filling out a voter registration doesn't necessarily mean a person is registered to vote; the information must be vetted some way and the information must be entered into the voter rolls.
Biden's EO is a backdoor way to give an advantage to preferred political activist groups. The Federal government under Biden is picking and choosing who receives the benefit of publicly funded Federal activities. Democrat's affirmative action in the election process isn't about equality and really isn't about equity, either.
Democrats have always believed that they win with larger voter participation. But voter participation has been trending upward over the last decade and Democrats have not emerged with a clear advantage. Democrats have invested a lot of political capital into creating an autocratic and authoritarian Presidency but increasing voter participation (by the wrong voters) has emerged as a threat. Democrats are trying to find ways to rig the election process the same way Democrats have used gimmicks to rig the legislative process.
That’s a profoundly vague complaint, but even if true, so what? When you run the government you get to say who is involved with or benefits from government activities. Don’t like it? Win an election.
But when you say “benefit” what are you talking about? Is it something like a social security benefit? Is ther some government program to hand out contracts? What “benefit” are we talking about?
Does it somehow thwart a federal law that would otherwise require equal treatment under the law (something already required by the 14th Amendment). I’m hearing a lot of SUPER vague hand wringing, but very little in the way of specifics.
What affirmative action? How does affirmative action have anything to do with voting?
That’s a curious complaint. Are Republicans doing something to increase equality and equity in voting?
Apparently Republicans agree. That should embarrass them. The idea that you lose an election when more people vote should send a loud message that seems to be falling on deaf ears. Winning by having less people vote isn’t Democracy; it’s Oligarchy.
What would it mean to “rig” the election process? We have an election. People vote. The person with the most votes wins (unless we’re electing a president). What is there to rig in that?
Better still, sue the living hell out of the party in charge of government; or flat out impeach the president. Whichever is easier. Democrats have done both with abandon; so they won't mind when the shoe is on the other foot.
Last I checked Social Security was a law passed by Congress. This is an EO to galvanize federal government agencies into the election process. If it is not specifically in their normal operational procedures to be involved in elections- they should not be involved, period.
Wait for the lawsuits. They will come. Love the way some think the Democrats aren't doing this because they feel it will benefit only them. If they didn't think they could bend it to get more Democrat voters, then they wouldn't be doing it.
No more vague than complaints alleging privilege. The problem with precedents is that the politicization of the Federal bureaucracy becomes acceptable. Democrats don't win all elections, you know. The problem with the precedent is that winning elections allows for acceptable exercise of privilege. Don't like it, win an election and change everything; winning an election allows that privilege.
These types of affirmative action benefits are based upon political preference. Affirmative action benefits are not applied equally; the law is skewed toward unequal treatment according to political preference. The 14th amendment no longer has relevance in issues concerning affirmative action. Affirmative action is not limited to racial issues even though racial activists attempt throw everyone else under the bus.
Republicans have fared well as voter participation trends upward. Republicans are competitive on a level playing field. That's what worries Democrats.
Yes, the candidate that gets the most votes wins. That's why election security is important.
Anyone who is against requiring voter I.D. as a requirement to vote, is suspect.
Period.
True enough. I find it amazing that Democrats - especially our current VP - spent much of 2019 and 2020 insisting that Stacey Abrams had her election stolen from her, but it’s beyond the pale for Trump to do the same.
I’m still waiting to hear why anyone who cherishes democracy would object to that.
Government agencies are routinely involved in promoting agendas that are not part of their core mission. Walk into any government office (including those not affiliated with EPA) and you’ll probably see a sign encouraging you to recycle. Who cares? As such things go, encouraging voting seems like a bizarre thing to object to.
Whataboutism does nothing to clarify the claims of this seed.
I still don’t understand how this is “affirmative action.”
I have no problem with secure elections. We should be trying to make voting easier while also maximizing the integrity of the process.
So, each issue is separate and distinct? Political activism doesn't have an influence that reverberates through a number of issues?
The allegations of privilege are used politically to drive a broad range of policies ostensibly intended to provide equity and justice. Allegations of privilege are used politically to justify affirmative action.
You do realize that policy to provide public access for disabled people is an affirmative action policy. Affirmative action is about reshaping society to accommodate minorities in society; like the minority disabled population. The mask mandate was an affirmative action policy intended to protect the minority of the population at higher risk.
Biden has only put forward affirmative action policies that address minority issues. Biden's EO to require Federal agencies to intrude into the political process is no different; the EO is driven by minority issues.
Then why not allocate the resources where they would have the most impact. Local government has direct authority and responsibility to supervise and manage all aspects of the election process; from registering voters to tallying ballots. The Federal government intruding into the process only increases the burden on local government without providing more resources.
Voter ID benefits poll workers most by speeding the process of identifying and validating voters. Voter ID would address the long wait lines at polling stations. Personally, I use my voter registration card as a courtesy to the poll workers.
Biden's 'back door plan' to influence elections. ?? Yeah, assuring the right to vote without right wing interference.