Heritage scholar breaks down Democrats election federalization bill
Hans von Spakovsky warns of dire consequences if John Lewis Voting Rights law is passed, on 'Life, Liberty & Levin'
Former Justice Department attorney Hans von Spakovsky joined "Life, Liberty & Levin" for an interview airing Sunday in which he broke down what he considered the most alarming changes to election laws that come to be if Democrats are able to pass Rep. Terri Sewell's, D-Ala., "John Lewis Voting Rights Act."
Von Spakovsky, who served under President George W. Bush and is now a fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Election Law Reform Initiative, told host Mark Levin that Sewell's bill, heavily supported by Biden and fellow Democrats, will effectively erase any independent state government's control of their own election procedures.
"These laws do everything from gutting voter I.D. laws in all the states, to putting severe restrictions on states [from] being able to verify the eligibility and qualifications of voters, and [restrictions against] cleaning up and maintain[ing] the accuracy of their voter lists," he said.
President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., on Feb. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
"I mean, some of the restrictions are just absurd: For example, if you register to vote and then you don't vote for the next 50 years, they still can't take you off the list."
Von Spakovsky said the Lewis Act, named for a late congressman from Atlanta, would permit partisan political operatives to harvest ballots from people's homes – which he warned is a proposition rife for potential fraud and illicit behavior:
"[It] would mandate that states allow vote trafficking: In other words, states would have to allow paid political operatives and candidates and campaign staffers to be able to go to voters homes to pick up and handle their absentee ballots, which of course, puts them in a good position to alter or change those ballots, and maybe not deliver them – and to coerce and pressure those voters," he said.
"There are so many provisions in here it's hard to list them all because the bills are so big."
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Von Spakovsky said the bill will also give the power to alter or veto legislative district maps to the Justice Department, while at the present time states have control over crafting their state and federal officeholders' districts.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the debt ceiling during an event at the White House, Oct. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The law would even trump changes to election law made by popular referendum at the ballot box, essentially neutering the power of Americans to decide such changes.
"That is an unbelievable intrusion into state sovereignty, and frankly, it's a way of overriding the will of the state legislators and the voters in every single state," he said.
Other concerns voiced by opponents include the possibility the law leads to further gerrymandering by Democrats in control of the federal government. Democrats, and at times Republicans, have been criticized on a state level for drawing maps that give oversized power to the party that holds the legislature or governor's office.
In Maryland, fair district advocates have ripped the state's electoral map, wherein most districts are slenderly drawn to touch heavily-Democratic Baltimore or the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and where a federal judge once compared Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., piecemeal third district to a "broken-winged pterodactyl."
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