H.R. 4: For Democrats, it’s all about power

President Biden and big-government Democrats are obsessed with power. They want to control whether your kids wear a mask, how much of your money you can keep, and what you say on social media platforms. Now, Biden’s never-ending quest for power has taken a new, dark turn: With their new elections bill, H.R. 4, Democrats are trying to control how individual states run their local elections. States are frequently referred to as “laboratories of democracy.” And yet Democrats want to eviscerate their autonomy and force local leaders to ask the federal government for permission to pass commonsense election integrity legislation. It’s totalitarian, and as usual with the left, it’s all about power.

H.R. 4 is a bad bill, and it would be bad law. Its central proposition is to revive an outdated policy known as “preclearance.” Preclearance is an obscure legal mechanism that would force individual states to seek approval from the Department of Justice before making any changes to their own election laws, including widely supported changes such as voter ID requirements. This is the same Department of Justice that recently took the stunning step of suing Georgia for passing election integrity legislation. Democrats are attempting to revive a rule from the 1960s to influence elections — and it bears mentioning that this rule was deemed unconstitutional in a 2013 Supreme Court case. The left is so desperate to control local elections that they’re going back in time and against the Constitution. 

Does that seem a little shady and overly complicated? That’s the point: They’re hoping they can sneak one by the American people. They have realized that openly calling for bans on voter ID won’t work — and that’s why so many prominent Democrats have flip-flopped on that issue. They learned something from the failed Texas Democrats’ laughable vacation to Washington. Their extreme positions and attention-seeking antics aren’t getting results with the American people, so instead Democrats are trying to hide their power-grabs behind obscure sections of outdated laws. 

The danger of H.R. 4 isn’t solely limited to its push for preclearance. The bill contains several other typical Democratic attacks on election integrity. These include efforts to make cleaning up voter rolls more difficult, as well as forcing states to take inaccurate census data. The bill would subject strict state-level voter ID laws to partisan federal review. None of this is necessary, and all of it is about power.

Democrats don’t care that the reforms they’re pushing are not popular with the American people. In fact, polling shows that 68 percent of voters believe state legislatures should decide the voting rules and regulations for their state, not the federal government. That number alone invalidates their reasoning for H.R. 4’s necessity. Polling also shows strong support for voter ID across the board — including from a majority of Democrats and minority voters. Democrats in D.C. evidently care more about expanding their influence on local elections than they do about the will of their constituents. 

Democrats are revealing their true intentions, and Americans ought to pay attention. This far-left party has no interest in promoting safe, secure, transparent elections. They don’t care that Americans support commonsense fixes to the voting process. Democrats find the concept of local leaders passing legislation without the approval of D.C. bureaucrats inherently offensive. Joe Biden thinks that the federal government should play a massive role in your day-to-day life — especially when it comes to how you cast your ballot. Americans will reject H.R. 4 just like they rejected H.R. 1 because freedom still matters.

Ronna McDaniel is chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. Follow her on Twitter @GOPChairwoman.