GOP lawmakers and other conservative critics are working to expose and fight a secretive executive order by President Biden to expand voter participation in elections, which they suspect has become a powerful government-wide complement to private left-wing election financing that could tip the 2024 campaign illegally and unfairly in Democrats' favor.
Cast as a civil rights measure issued as the nation marked the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" police beatings of voting-rights marchers outside Selma, Ala., the president's 2021 directive orders every federal agency, more than 600 in all, to register and mobilize voters -- particularly "people of color" and others the White House says face "challenges to exercise their fundamental right to vote." It further orders the agencies to collaborate with ostensibly nonpartisan nonprofits.
Since issuing the order, critics claim, the Biden administration has stonewalled efforts to scrutinize its implementation by often ignoring document requests and litigating to shield relevant records. The critics, including members of Congress, state officials, and government watchdog groups, say the executive branch is attempting to federalize elections with an end-run around constitutionally prescribed state control over voting -- in many cases using the resources of agencies with missions unrelated to registering voters.
Some have labeled the president's order "Bidenbucks," evoking "Zuckbucks" -- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan's funneling of some $400 million through two nonprofits into election offices across the country during the 2020 election. That money often flowed to left-leaning nonprofits managing critical aspects of election administration that were considered crucial to Biden's winning the White House.
A liberal judge recently dismissed a conservative group's FOIA lawsuit to get Biden to provide any details about the Democrat Party's latest efforts to use taxpayer funds for the purposes of the Democrat Party.
Left-leaning think tank Demos, which in late 2020 drafted a blueprint for the order, estimates that if fully implemented, it could generate 3.5 million new or updated voter registrations annually. Even a far more modest increase could dramatically impact the 2024 presidential election, considering that recent contests have been decided by just thousands of votes in several states.
Critics say the order could violate laws including the Administrative Procedure Act, barring agency actions "in excess of statutory jurisdiction" and the Hatch Act, curbing political activities by federal employees.
Their concerns are driven in part by the fact that the directive appeared to be cribbed from the Demos white paper. Two ex-Demos executives -- one of whom helped write the paper -- departed for the Biden administration for roles positioning them to push for the order.
Ben Weingartner has contacted the Biden Administration with questions about the program. It refused to answer. He contacted the leftwing groups attending conferences about how to implement this illegal executive order. All but one refused to comment.
It's like they're trying to steal another election in secret.
H]ans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation's Election Law Reform Initiative and a former member of the Federal Election Commission, recently submitted congressional testimony indicating that the kinds of activities contemplated under the Biden administration's executive order "risk confusing and intimidating vulnerable members of the public who are applying for federal benefits into thinking they have to register and vote for the political party in control of the White House to ensure their applications for benefits are not declined."
Republicans are trying to pass a law to stop this by denying Biden the appropriations to use federal money for this partisan purpose.
As currently drafted, the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill would defund the order. Perhaps more significantly, the House Administration Committee recently introduced the American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act, which it touts as "the most conservative election bill to be seriously considered in the House in a generation."
A living tribute. I'm so proud.
Among the almost 50 bills contained in the legislation is the Promoting Free and Fair Elections Act. That bill, sponsored by New York GOP Rep. Claudia Tenney, co-chair of the Election Integrity Caucus, would nullify the Biden executive order.
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Notwithstanding such opposition, the ACE Act would seem poised to pass the House given the support shown by leadership, including its sponsorship by Speaker Kevin McCarthy and its more than one hundred other co-sponsors. But, as Roll Call noted, "its outlook is bleak in the Democrat-controlled Senate."