Show Notes
What is wrong with registering people to vote? Who could be against that?
That was the explanation offered by administration spokesmen for President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which he issued two months into his presidency. The order opens the door for federal government departments and agencies to become active in registering voters. The order states:
“Executive departments and agencies (agencies) should partner with State, local, Tribal, and territorial election officials to protect and promote the exercise of the right to vote, eliminate discrimination and other barriers to voting, and expand access to voter registration and accurate election information. It is our duty to ensure that registering to vote and the act of voting be made simple and easy for all those eligible to do so.
It all sounds innocuous enough but, as Peter Schweizer and his co-host Eric Eggers discuss on the most recent episode of The Drill Down podcast, it is all about the execution.
American federal elections are, by Constitutional design, administered by the states. This ingenious design was to prevent a tyrannical federal government from interfering in its own elections. The intent of Biden’s executive order undercuts that. And supporters of the effort think as many as 3.5 million new voter registrations will come of it.
How?
By “weaponizing” federal agencies that operate within the states to integrate voter registration efforts through careful targeting to their most reliable constituents. That’s why HHS has added voter registration assistance to the website Healthcare.gov, for example. It’s why the Treasury department is now integrating voter registration into the tax preparation services it offers to low-income people. It’s why the Housing and Urban Development department, which administers public housing, is integrating voter registration in the units the department manages, or why the General Services Administration has spent millions on translating voter registration forms.
It is why the US Marshals Service is now offering voter registration to people it is holding, pre-trial, in federal custody, and planning to install voting booths in 900 federal prisons and jails for those registrants to use on Election Day. It is why voter registration efforts are being conducted at tribal-serving colleges and on student loan application forms.
On the surface, any one of these efforts might appear as just an effort to, as the order says, “promote the exercise of the right to vote,” but states run by Republicans are suing to stop it, arguing these efforts are partisan electioneering for Democrats, funded by taxpayer money.
Eggers, author of the 2018 book FRAUD, points out that these kinds of activities are fine for a political campaign, but not for a federal agency or department. A case challenging these practices is in the court system now. Biden’s Justice Department has blocked several Freedom of Information Act requests trying to obtain information on who is behind these registration drives.
“We already know that about 12% of voter registrations nationally are either fraudulent or flawed,” Eggers says on the show. He asks, “Does any of this seem politically neutral?”
“Imagine if the Trump administration had the [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] ATF set up voter registration drives at gun shows,” Peter quips. “Or at churches!”
Nevertheless, the policy has its fans, as Peter notes. The American Civil Liberties Union, a group called “Black Voters Matter,” and another group called the “Hip Hop Caucus” are all strongly supportive of the Biden administration’s efforts.
Peter recalls the history of political machines such as Tammany Hall in New York City in the 19th century, where Boss Tweed’s operatives would offer early release to convicts, then escort them to the polls, among other dirty tricks. Bad as that was, Peter adds, the constitutional design still kept what was occurring in New York City from spreading nationally. The stated point of Biden’s executive order, however, is precisely the opposite.
