To the editor:
I am writing to you to object to an inaccurate and misleading letter you printed. The writer calls House Bill HR1 “fair” and “ensuring an ethical government.” Nothing could be further from the truth. This bill is a threat to our constitutional rights and election integrity. Let me spell it out:
HR 1 is dressed up with flowery language about protecting democracy, but it aims at eliminating many existing election safeguards in the name of “increasing access.” Examples include legalization of the questionable technique called ballot harvesting. This allows activists to collect other people’s ballots and hand them in. Most states allow family members or designated caregivers to do this legally. However, allowing any random person to collect a ballot or two or 100 or 1,000 means that the chain of custody is broken, makes verification problematic, and thus invites major fraud.
Automatic voter registration is also a wolf in sheep’s clothing. What’s wrong? Just look at the southern border. Thousands of undocumented non-citizens are flooding into the border states. Registering automatically at the DMV and elsewhere without proof of citizenship invites massive fraud.
Allowing universal mail-in ballots without purging the voter rolls also invites election fraud. The voter rolls in several states have been documented to contain dead persons, minors, non-citizens, felons and others ineligible to vote. I’m all for being inclusive, but allowing dead people to vote seems to me to be a little self serving for certain politicians.
Here is another winner: The HR1 bill allows counting ballots for 10 days after an election! Why? Many states like Texas and Florida have shown that ballots can be counted in their entirety by midnight on Election Day. Letting unscrupulous political operatives access to the vote count and then giving them 10 days more to come up with somehow overlooked ballots is, again, an invitation for fraud on a massive scale.
How about allowing felons to vote? When you are convicted of a felony, you may lose certain rights, including the right to vote. Sorry, but losing voting rights is part of the deal.
HR 1 allows voting without any ID to “increase access.” If your goal is to get massive numbers of illegal voters casting ballots, this is a good way to do it.
All clear-thinking Americans who value free and fair elections must oppose HR1. Please contact your congressman and senators at these addresses:
www.braun.senate.gov/contact-mike
www.hollingsworth.house.gov/contact
Sincerely,
Dan Huston, Nashville
