The House passed on Thursday two “freedom to cheat” voter bills that would eviscerate Republican attempts to increase election integrity in states across the nation.
The House voted to concur in the House Amendment to Senate Amendment to H.R. 5746, an unrelated NASA bill that serves as the legislative vehicle for the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
The legislation passed 220-203, which featured overwhelming Democrat support and minimal Republican backing.
House Democrat leadership discussed their strategy to help the Senate pass their voter bills Wednesday night. Because the two voter bills will be sent to the Senate as a “message” from the House, it is not subject to an initial filibuster by Republicans to start debate on the floor. However, this will also mean that it be harder end debate on the floor and will still require 60 votes to invoke cloture and vote on the legislation.
Senate Republicans have previously blocked the passage of voter bills four times.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has used Republicans’ blocking of the voter bills and the January 6 protests as a reason to pass voter rights bills by breaking the filibuster.
Although Schumer wants to break the filibuster, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have signaled their opposition to breaking the centuries-old rule in the chamber.
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Rick Scott (R-FL) ripped into the election bills, contending that the Democrat bills serve as nothing more than a cynical attempt to cement power and cheat in future elections.
“We call it the Freedom to Cheat Act,” McDaniel said, referring to the Freedom to Vote Act.
Breitbart News’s Ashley Oliver reported on the legislation. “The sweeping bill would order states with voter ID laws to widen their accepted forms of voter identification to allow for several alternatives, including forms of identification that do not contain a photo.
“The influential conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, which has actively been lobbying states to tighten their election processes, deems ‘model’ voter ID rules to be those that require voters to present a government-issued ID that contains a photo and makes clear that the voter is an American citizen when they go to cast their ballot,” Oliver continued. “In December, Heritage scored states on this metric and found six states, including Georgia — a state that has become ground zero in the fight over election laws — received perfect scores in regard to voter ID laws specifically. Another 22 states received at least partial credit or more for their voter ID laws.”
“It eviscerates state voter ID laws, which 36 states have passed,” McDaniel said of the legislation. “This bill eliminates states’ more secure voter ID requirements, replacing them with a process that is rife with fraud.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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