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Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, when Tennesseans go to the polls and cast their vote, they do so with the hope that the person whose name appears on their ballot will do what is best for their community. They expect that person to show respect for the Constitution and the rule of law and to protect the integrity of our most important institutions.

The people place a great deal of trust in us, and I don't think it is too much to ask that we return the favor by recognizing that there are limits to how far the Federal Government can expand its reach. Many of my Democratic colleagues, however, would disagree with me on that premise. They returned to Washington this week ready to squander the people's trust on yet another power grab.

The election bill they are prepared to break the Senate rules to pass has failed multiple times, under multiple titles, and in different packaging. This has gone on for the last 20 years. But this latest round has one thing in common with all the other drafts that found their rightful place in the trash can: It has nothing to do with protecting the ballot box.

This is not a voting rights bill; it is a sweeping takeover of our democracy and a shocking attack on the constitutional authority of the States to determine the time, place, and manner of elections. That is right. This is not in statute; it is article I, section 4 of the Constitution.

I have said it before. I will say it again. These proposals read like something concocted by someone who has never stepped foot behind the scenes of their local polling place. It is concocted by people who probably have never spent 10 minutes as a poll worker carrying out and implementing an election, and they absolutely have never served a term on a local election commission.

It seems that our friends across the aisle are looking at all of these local elected and appointed officials who work elections and are saying: We think that you just are incapable and inept to carry out an election.

How disrespectful can you be?

The Federal Government has got to come in and save the day and take away the ability of your local elections registrar to carry forward an election.

I hope my colleagues will think about the message that they are sending because there is nothing in these proposals that would help your State and local leaders secure elections, and, in fact, many provisions would actually weaken the checks already in place against voter fraud.

This is the opposite of how it should be. It should be easy to vote and hard to cheat, not the other way around. And the people of this country and elected leaders have been saying no to the Federal takeover of elections for the past 20 years. But here we are again having to once again stand up against this desperate attempt to undermine voters and empower cheats and criminals by mandating ballot harvesting while rejecting voter ID requirements. That is in their bill--got to do it, got to allow ballot harvesting. That is where shenanigans happen.

We can't have voter ID requirements--no, no, no. We don't want anybody at the ballot box having to prove who they are. But be ready to show that ID if you want to get on a plane, if you want to get in a government building, if you want to go buy a bottle of wine. Be ready to show that ID, prove your age, and prove who you are.

Their bill would also centralize power over elections in the hands of faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats--that is right--not your friends and neighbors working the polls and making decisions and serving on local election commissions. You will never know the people who say, ``Hey, you are too stupid to figure out how to run these elections,'' because the Democrats are going to take all the power and authority away from your local friends and neighbors and send it to bureaucrats here in DC.

And they would embrace a one-size-fits-all rule book that any seasoned election worker knows will throw polling places into chaos.

In my home county in Tennessee, we have people who have worked these polls for years. They are dedicated. They are good people. I don't know their political party. I just know that they show up to make certain that our elections are free and fair, and I appreciate them.

Since the first iteration of this bill reared its head, the American people have seen it for what it is: an activist-driven, power-hungry solution in search of problems that do not exist. That is right; the problems don't exist.

The Democrats want you to believe that America as we know it will end if they don't pass this bill. They are acting like elections are in crisis. But do you know what? I think maybe it is the Democratic Party that is in crisis. They are staring at decades-high inflation, crime spikes, cascading public health failures, a southern border on the verge of collapse, embarrassing approval ratings, infighting so intense that watching the nightly news feels like you are watching a soap opera.

They can't get their arms around COVID. They can't figure it out. I just heard coming over here that the CDC is now going to mandate that insurance companies have to supply home testing kits for all of their enrollees. I mean, yeah, I think it is a party in crisis. And do you know what? The Democrats right now, they are desperate for a distraction. Oh, just give them something to change the narrative. And the benefit of this one, if they could pull this off, is that they won't have to worry about the American people holding them accountable for the fallout because they now will control the ballot process; they will control the election commissions.

And do you know what they are saying to the American public? Your vote doesn't count.

We have treasured one person, one vote. We have treasured fair, free, honest elections. And the Democrats are ready to throw it away for a power grab that is unprecedented and is incredibly disrespectful of the men and women in each of our counties who give of their time and work to hold these elections.

This is more than just another example of partisanship holding the Senate hostage. And it is partisanship. It is ``We have to do this, take away power from the people.''

Oh, isn't it supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people? But, oh, I think my colleagues across the aisle have forgotten that. They think it is government for the powerful, government that is in control of one party and one party's agenda. That is what they are thinking.

This attack on the integrity of our elections is a complete betrayal of the trust that the people have given elected officials because we have colleagues across the aisle who are basically looking at their constituents in their various States and saying: Your opinion does not count.

Think about that.

You are not good enough. You are not smart enough. You can't handle it. So, hey--Federal Government--we are going to come and save you from yourselves. That is what they think.

It is their constitutional prerogative to determine the time, place, and manner of their own elections. That is what is given to the State legislatures. It is their prerogative, and it is not the job of Congress or the President or a battalion of unelected, faceless, nameless, unaccountable bureaucrats to burn down the goalposts when things at the ballot box don't go their way. But that is exactly what the Democratic Party is trying to do this week.

So you never will be able to complain to them. They want to hold all the cards. The purpose of this latest power grab isn't to make the people feel secure. Its purpose is to inject hysteria into what should be a very serious conversation about actually protecting the vote.

Everything the people hear from the Democrats this week will have been scripted to minimize truth and maximize chaos. Remember, they want you to believe that elections are in crisis.

``We have to fix it.''

But, fortunately, Tennesseans and the American people know better than to believe what they are hearing on the nightly news and to believe what is coming from the Democratic Party. They also know there is only one reason a political party would work this hard to make elections easier for them to manipulate.

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