For the People Act would fortify elections

To The Eagle:

The 2021 Senate will soon be debating HR-1, the “For The People Act,” designed to reform and fortify our republic’s democratic voting system. Its features would expand, improve and enforce equity and transparency in federal elections.

HR-1 promotes same day voter registration as well as online registration and would make election day a federal holiday. Voting rights would be restored to citizens with prior felony convictions. It would expand early voting and offers absentee /mail-in voting unconditionally to all U.S. citizens. Non-citizens would remain ineligible to vote in federal elections.

Also addressed are improvements in election security, increased support for a paper-based voting system, and oversight over election vendors. It would end partisan gerrymandering by establishing nationwide independent non-partisan redistricting commissions. Deceptive practices that spread false information during elections would be prohibited and curtailed.

To shine light upon sources of “dark money,” all organizations that spend money in elections would be required to disclose their donors. Online political spending transparency rules would be upgraded to ensure voters know who is paying for political advertisements. Oversight rules would be strengthened to ensure those who break our campaign finance laws are held accountable.

This has been only a brief summary of HR-1, the full text of which is available online. Confirm for yourself that none of its measures favor any particular political party, regardless of what any organization’s propaganda mill would have you believe.

It is a given that many things in life are unfair. This country’s national voting franchise should not be one of them.

JB Bouchard

Puget Island