WASHINGTON - Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today released this statement after Democrats renewed their efforts to federalize elections before November with the recent introduction of H.R. 7427.

"Local election administrators are overwhelmed preparing for November, yet Democrats have dropped another unrealistic bill with roughly 50 permanent, federal mandates for states to implement in less than four months," said Davis. "These mandates not only create logistical and funding nightmares for states, but they also raise serious security and fraud concerns. We saw in recent primaries – in both red and blue states – how dramatically altering the way people vote significantly increases the risk of disenfranchising voters. We also saw how this can be avoided. States where election officials at every level worked together generally had fewer problems on election day.

"I want every voter to be able to safely vote this November, but the federal mandates in this bill will only increase the risk of disenfranchising voters. Instead of continuing to place unrealistic, federal mandates on states, this committee should be hearing from local election administrators on what they need to run safe, successful elections in their states this fall."

Major issues with the Democrats' bill:

• Up until a month before an election, a state could be required to mail every registered voter a live ballot – even if that state has not accurately maintained its voter rolls. At the beginning of May, California and Los Angeles County were required to remove 1.5 million inactive voters from their registration lists when a Judicial Watch lawsuit said Los Angeles County has more registered voters than citizens. This timeframe may not even be possible for a state to print and mail that many ballots or allow enough time for those ballots to be sent back.
• Legalizing ballot harvesting increases opportunities for fraud, which is what triggered a special election in North Carolina earlier this year. CLICK HERE to read more.
• Prohibits states from requiring ANY type of identification in order to attain an absentee ballot.
• Forces states to have at least 15 consecutive days of early voting for federal elections and dictates where your early voting center is set up. If the DOJ doesn't like where you have set up your early voting locations, they will sue you into bankruptcy.