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Senator Charles Grassley comments on the voting rights bill that failed to get 60 votes to pass in the Senate Tuesday as all Republicans voted no.
The For the People Act proposed to increase voter access by expanding early voting, allowing for same-day registration, enacting automatic registration for federal elections, and lowering identification requirements. Senator Grassley (R) shares one of several grievances he had with the bill, “We have a Federal Elections Commission that makes decisions about people violating the law. It’s made up of three Democrats and three Republicans. So you have to at least have a bipartisan agreement that somebody broke an election law, in other words four to two or five to one or six to zero. This election law that passed the Pelosi-House of Representatives would make that four and three so you’d have partisan decisions on somebody breaking election laws.”
The legislation that went to the Senate actually reduced the number of commissioners from six to five, with two members from each major party and a fifth independent tiebreaker. The bill also had campaign finance reforms that included expanding the requirement for nonprofits involved in politics to disclose who their donors are, requiring politicians to wait longer after leaving office to become lobbyists, and requiring all presidents, vice presidents, and major party candidates to release their tax returns to the public. This bill came as 22 laws in 14 states, including Iowa, were enacted this year to restrict voting absentee and by mail. Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that shortens the early voting period to 20 days from 29, three years after Republicans reduced the period from 40 days.