WASHINGTON - Committee on House Administration Republicans released the following statement after House Democrats chose once again not to work with Republicans and voted against every amendment offered to their partisan election security bill, H.R. 2722, during today's committee markup.

"The partisan bill we marked up today has no chance of becoming law and it takes our election process back, instead of moving it forward," said Ranking Member Rodney Davis (IL-13). "We all remember the issue of 'hanging chads' in the 2000 presidential election in Florida and the confidence lost by many voters during that election. Federally mandating the use of paper ballots and manual hand counts, which is what the Democrats' bill does, will lead to these same issues, but on a much larger scale. We should be working to help make the processes currently used by our local officials more secure, not mandating they use a flawed system that will lead to longer lines at the polls. In addition to several amendments, I offered an alternative that provides election officials with the resources they've asked for to help ensure voting is more secure, faster, and results are known on election day."

“The Obama administration knew Russia was trying to interfere in our elections, and elected to do nothing. Thankfully, they were not able to penetrate our voting machines,” said Congressman Barry Loudermilk (GA-11). “The bill authored by my Democratic colleagues, H.R. 2722, does little to further secure our election systems; in fact, the paper ballot option and restrictions on voting machines, plays into the hands of possible foreign influence, and ballot harvesting. We need to improve our election security without overstepping states’ authority to maintain their elections. This is why Republicans introduced the Election Security Assistance Act; which would provide federal grants to states to update their aging election infrastructure, and increase resources for state and local officials to ensure our elections are safe, secure, and accurate.”

Securing Elections for Democrats Act
What the Democrats' bill does:

Mandatory Paper Ballots – This bill mandates that states exclusively use paper ballots, effectively banning any type of direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines. To learn more about the many issues with paper ballots, CLICK HERE.

Federally Mandated Manual Hand Recounts – H.R. 2722 would result in significantly more manual hand recounts of paper ballots. Voters want results at the end of an Election Day. Manual recount requirements will result in longer, drawn out elections that are extremely expensive and may takes weeks, if not months, to reach a decision.

Irresponsible Funding Commitment – The funding of elections is the primary responsibility of the states. Democrats are blindly committing $1.3 billion over the course of 10 years in their partisan bill. The Republican solution, the Election Security Assistance Act, provides $380 million in grants in preparation for the 2020 presidential election. Additionally, there is a 25% funding match requirement from states, which forces states receiving federal funds to have their own skin- in-the-game.

Amendments
The Committee on House Administration held a markup on Friday, June 21, 2019, on H.R. 2722. Republicans introduced six amendments, all voted down by Democrats. Amendments introduced include:

  1. Substitute H.R. 2722 for the Election Security Assistance Act
  2. Strike Subtitle A, Mandatory Paper Ballots
  3. Strike Sections 104-105, Recycled Paper Ballot Requirement
  4. Strike Subtitle B, Risk-Limiting Audit Grants to States
  5. Amend Section 297B, 25% State Match of Grants
  6. Prohibit Ballot Harvesting

Election Security Assistance Act
Earlier today, Ranking Member Rodney Davis introduced the Election Security Assistance Act, which contains critical election security measures:

  • Election infrastructure funding
  • Appropriate security clearance assistance for election officials
  • A reporting structure for election cybersecurity incidents
  • Optional hands-on assistance through an Election Cyber Assistance Unit

To learn more about the bill, CLICK HERE.
To learn why there was no bipartisan election security bill, CLICK HERE.

###