WASHINGTON - Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) sent a letter to Chairperson Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Subcommittee on Elections Chair Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) requesting that they review House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent election legislation, specifically the nationalization of vote-by-mail, included in her two recent coronavirus relief packages.

In the letter, Davis writes:

"We owe it to the American people to carefully and thoughtfully examine the issue of vote-by-mail. This must be done before forcing voters to use a new, and at times, complicated method of voting. Vote-by-mail can add additional hurdles for voters, such as signature verification requirements that increase the likelihood that a vote will be rejected. Additionally, many states have simply ignored, or not had the resources to comply with, the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to maintain accurate voter registration lists upon which vote-by-mail relies. Further, it remains unclear whether vote-by-mail on a large scale by November 2020 is even possible with the current level of paper production in the United States."

"These issues deserve to be addressed by the Subcommittee on Elections, especially given its efforts to examine voter discrimination."

"I hope we can work together to ensure that the House does not continue to legislate a federalized approach that will hinder states from successfully executing our elections. As I have said before, states are already working around the clock to keep their election infrastructure functioning during this national emergency."

"The last thing states need is for the federal government to impose time-consuming mandates that will create chaos for election administrations and threaten the integrity of our electoral process. We do not know yet what the status of coronavirus will be in November, but we must work together to guarantee that public confidence in our democracy does not diminish in these difficult times.

Read the full letter by clicking here.

Background:
The Committee on House Administration and its Subcommittee on Elections are responsible for all matters related to election law and are charged with investigating election irregularities. The Committee Republicans have worked over the last 17 months to bring awareness to potentially the greatest threat to ballot integrity in this country: ballot harvesting. Our goal remains to prevent this practice, which jeopardizes the integrity of our electoral process and disenfranchises voters. House Administration Committee Republicans introduced a report exposing the political weaponization of ballot harvesting in California. The report highlights the fraud and abuse associated with ballot harvesting.

Click here to view the report.
Click here for a document summarizing the report.

Also, Ranking Member Rodney Davis introduced the Election Fraud Prevention Act to eliminate the practice of ballot harvesting – when any individual can pick up any voter's ballot for any reason and deliver it to the polling location completely unchecked. H.R. 6882 will amend the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to prohibit funds disbursed through the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) from going to states that allow ballot harvesting by any individual and in unlimited amounts while allowing for common-sense exceptions such as election officials, employees of the U.S. Postal Service, family members of the voter, household members of the voter, and caregivers of the voter to deliver the ballots of those truly in need.

Visit the Committee on House Administration Republicans Website for more information.

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