Sen. Tom Cotton: Democrats Want Pandemic Voting Practices to Be Permanent, National

Democrats seek permanent nationalization of changes to voting practices ostensibly implemented as pandemic safety measures, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Thursday in an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.

Marlow asked how to restore election integrity given the imposition of automatic voter registration and sending of mail-in ballots to addresses on inaccurate voter rolls.

Cotton replied, “The bad news is that [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer want to take what were unusual, rushed voting practices in the middle of a pandemic last year and make them permanent. That’s the first bill they’ve introduced. They’re trying to make vote-by-mail universal across the country, override 50 states’ election laws, eliminate not only photo identification, but signature verification, require mandatory registration. This is a left wing wish list.”

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Republican majorities in state legislatures are the best asset in restoring election integrity, Cotton assessed.

“Washington is not going to have a solution to this problem, but it is real problem,” Cotton remarked. “The good news is in many of the states where Democratic governors made big changes at the last minute, those legislatures are in session today, and those legislatures are controlled by Republicans in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin and Minnesota.”

Cotton continued, “Georgia and Arizona [do] not just [have] Republican legislatures, but Republican governors, as well. I’ve already spoken to Republican leaders in Washington about giving those legislators the support they need, the lawyers, the expertise to help tighten up their election laws so they’re not in the situation again where they were last year where the Democratic governor has the power to unilaterally make changes without the legislature in session, and therefore the legislature can’t do anything about it.”

Cotton concluded, “I think it has to be a very high priority for Republican legislatures across the country to ensure that what were unusual and rush changes to our election practices in a once-in-a-century pandemic are never repeated again.”

H.R. 1, dubbed the “For the People Act,” would nationally mandate automated mailing out of ballots to registered voters for elections while prohibiting states from having photo-ID requirements for ballot submission or signature verification of ballots.