Voting rights bill is ‘a massive Democrat power grab,’ Texas Senator Ted Cruz says
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz doesn’t support the proposed federal voting rights act and is unlikely to back it even if some of his 46 amendments to the Democrat-introduced bill win approval.
He calls the bill, named the For the People Act, “The Corrupt Politicians Act” because it “is a massive Democrat power grab.”
The bill aims to expand voter rights, reduce the influence of money in politics, create new officeholder ethics rules and limit gerrymandering. It would override any contradicting provisions of Texas’ voting bill recently passed in the House.
Texas’ bill would ban election officials from mailing out absentee ballots or applications to voters unless voters request them. It also sets new and raises old penalties for rule-violating election officials.
The For the People Act passed the Democratic-run House in March on a 220-210 party-line vote. It now must be passed by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden to become law. But it needs 60 Senate votes to pass, and the Senate is split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.
The rules committee is reviewing the bill and could add amendments before the full Senate considers it.
“It is difficult to imagine a set of amendments being adopted that would cause me to vote for this bill,” he said during the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration hearing Tuesday. “It would take a fundamentally different bill.”
Cruz’s amendments specifically targeted aspects of the bill meant to prevent voter suppression. Most of his amendments are unlikely to pass because a majority is needed to pass and the committee is split 9-9 between Republicans and Democrats.
“Each of these amendments are designed to strike out egregious aspects of this bill,” Cruz said Tuesday.
Among what he calls the “egregious aspects”: Restoring voting rights to those who have been convicted of criminal offenses unless they are “serving a felony sentence in a correctional institution or facility at the time of the election.”
“I think that millions of illegal aliens and millions of felons voting are likely to vote Democrat,” Cruz said Tuesday on Fox News. “And their objective is to rig the game and stay in power for the next hundred years and to take the power away from the American voters.”
In Texas, once someone has fully completed their sentence or has been pardoned, their right to vote is automatically restored. However, it is a crime if someone votes when their sentence isn’t fully completed, which isn’t always clear.
The For the People Act would require states to notify those previously unable to vote when they’re able to and provide them with the necessary materials to register.
The bill also says that if a state requires voter identification that an individual can instead provide “the appropriate State or local election official with a sworn written statement, signed by the individual under penalty of perjury, attesting to the individual’s identity and attesting that the individual is eligible to vote in the election.”
The bill states that minority communities, specifically communities of color, are disproportionately burdened by voter identification laws. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 25% of American-American voting age citizens don’t have an ID eligible to be used to vote, compared to 8% of those who are white.
Cruz opposes the measure because he says it will allow undocumented immigrants to vote.
“This bill, the Corrupt Politicians Act, would register millions of illegal aliens,” Cruz said Tuesday on Fox News. “It would register millions of criminals to vote because Democrats believe, and I think quite reasonably, that millions of illegal aliens and millions of criminals are likely to vote Democratic.”
He was also especially vocal against the bill’s proposal to provide federal matching funds up to 600% of small dollar contributions for congressional candidates, which is aimed to amplify the contributions of everyday Americans so that their say in campaigns is equal to extremely wealthy donors.