06.17.21

ICYMI: McConnell, Senate Republicans Call Out “Unacceptable” Elections Power Grab

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined 15 of his Republican colleagues at a press conference today to speak out against the upcoming floor consideration of S.1. Click here to view his remarks.

“I think all of you surely know how all Republicans feel about this proposal. It’s a solution in search of a problem.

“The rationale for it has changed over the years. After the 2016 election, the same bill was introduced in the House and as soon as they got the majority they passed it. And the rationale at that point was we needed to clean the system up. Then they liked the outcome of the 2020 election and so the rationale became we need to prevent the states from somehow making it more difficult for people to vote.

“I’ve taken a look at all these new state laws. None of them are designed to suppress the vote. There’s no rational basis for the federal government trying to take over all of American elections. You all have noticed that there’s now a debate among Democrats over a revised version produced by one of the Democrats yesterday which has been endorsed by Stacey Abrams. So I would make this observation about the revised version. It still turns the federal election commission from a judge into a prosecutor by taking away the 3-3 balance and naming it 3-2 Democratic. And, in what is an extremely dubious constitutionality, would remove redistricting from state legislatures and hand it over to computers. Equally unacceptable. Totally inappropriate.

“All Republicans, I think, will oppose that as well. If that were to surface on the floor, that’s not what we anticipate the cloture motion to be on.”