(UnitedVoice.com) – A golden rule of bullies is when you can’t beat ’em, try to intimidate them. When there isn’t any leverage, intimidation is a desperate tactic sure to fail. That’s not stopping the Biden administration after Democrats faced a humiliating beat down of their radical election reform legislation in June. House Democrats passed HR1 as a power grab to prevent GOP states from reforming election laws.
On Wednesday, July 28, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a statement and guidance warning Republican-led states they must comply with federal election laws. Attorney General Merrick Garland intimated that the DOJ was watching them closely and suggested the GOP states were somehow eroding election rights.
The DOJ Isn’t Protecting Voters — It’s Trying to Protect Democrats
Let’s get straight to the point. Garland’s memo wasn’t about federal election laws. It’s about protecting Democrats who bent election rules during the pandemic in 2020. The reality is Garland’s warning was all bark without a bite.
So what if the DOJ scrutinizes legal laws? In no way did any election reform law violate the Voting Rights Act or rules impacting voters with disabilities, serving in the military, or who live overseas, as the letter implied.
What this is really about is sour grapes. Senate Republicans blocked the radical attempt by Democrats to federalize elections and make it easier for Democrats to win. Biden is under extreme pressure from the Left to do something as Democrats face a potential tidal wave election against them in 2022.
No amount of scrutiny by the DOJ can change voter sentiment.
Lawsuits Against the GOP Are Failing in Court
Republicans argue that they are making voting more accessible and harder to cheat. On June 25, the DOJ sued Georgia, alleging the new election reform law violates the Voting Right Act. Here’s what’s in the law:
- Absentee ballots require voter ID over signature matching verifications
- Voters must mail absentee ballots 11 days before an election
- Ballot drop boxes are limited to one per country or one per 100,000 voters
- Early voting and standardized voting hours were expanded
- Outside groups barred from politicking and bribing voters with handouts, including food and water
- Runoffs shortened from nine weeks to four weeks
The DOJ suit is fighting absentee ballot provisions alleging people should hand out unsolicited absentee ballots and shortening an absentee ballot deadline to 11 days before an election.
The DOJ is on shaky ground after the US Supreme Court ruled in June that Arizona was on a solid legal foundation to prohibit third parties from distributing and collecting mail-in ballots (i.e., absentee ballots). As the final arbiter in legal matters, the US Supreme Court’s say is final. Again, the Georgia law is nothing more than sour grapes and a waste of taxpayer dollars in pursuit of a Leftist agenda.
What Big Stick?
Theodore Roosevelt once said if one “speaks softly and carries a big stick, you will go far.” As previously stated, it’s challenging to intimidate someone with a loud voice and a small, brittle stick.
The Biden administration and Democrats are desperate as their wayward leadership struggles to inspire confidence and trust in their motives. Instead of moving on to critical economic matters or solving the self-created immigration crisis, Biden is wasting political capital while the country is in dire need of leadership.
Don Purdum, Independent Political Analyst
Copyright 2021, UnitedVoice.com
