U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Rules Committee, voted against the Electoral Count Reform Act today during a committee mark-up and gave the following remarks:
“This bill is a bad bill. … It’s bad policy and it’s bad for democracy. There are serious constitutional questions in the bill. The text of the Constitution, Article Two says, ‘Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.” This bill is Congress trying to intrude on the authority of the state legislatures to do that. But it’s also exceptionally bad policy.
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“We know that Democrats aren’t opposed to objecting to elections and presidential electors. We know that because Democrats objected in 1969. And then they objected again in 2001. Then they objected again in 2005. And then they objected again in 2017. So Democrats have a long history of going up and objecting to electors.
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“We also know that the Democrats are hell bent on federalizing elections. And this bill takes a significant step down that road of putting the federal government in charge of elections. That has been a top Democrat priority for some time.
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“What this bill does is decreases the ability of Congress to address instances of fraud when it occurs, and I believe Congress has a responsibility to do that.
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“I don’t believe senators from this side of the aisle should be supporting a bill that enhances the federalization of elections and reduces the ability of Congress to respond to the very serious problem of voter fraud. I think this bill does that, and so I intend to oppose it.”
Listen to Sen. Cruz’s full remarks here.
