Democrats are desperate to pass S.2747, the Freedom to Vote Act.
Like H.R. 1, S.2747 is a Federal takeover of voting laws and impose practices known to enable fraud.
Democrats need to move quickly to counter State Legislatures working to fix problems found in 2020.
Senate Republicans are united in opposition, so Democrats’ plan is to eliminate the filibuster rule requiring 60 votes for cloture (ending debate). Ending the filibuster, often termed “the nuclear option” would allow a 51 vote Senate majority to end debate and vote on legislation.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Intends to Pass S.2747 in January by eliminating the filibuster.
In a January 3, 2022 letter addressed to “Colleagues,” he stated: “The fight for the ballot is as old as the Republic. Over the coming weeks, the Senate will once again consider how to perfect this union and confront the historic challenges facing our democracy. We hope our Republican colleagues change course and work with us. But if they do not, the Senate will debate and consider changes to Senate rules on or before January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to protect the foundation of our democracy: free and fair elections.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen: filibuster is in the way of federal voting rights legislation, needs to change.
In a January 6, 2022 interview on NHPR, Shaheen stated: “As we watch what’s happening in New Hampshire with the gerrymandering of our congressional districts, with the effort to restrict voting for certain individuals in the state, it just underscores how important it is for us to pass legislation at the federal level that prevents that kind of gerrymandering and that ensures that everyone has an equal opportunity to vote.”
Sen. Maggie Hassan backs ending the filibuster on voting rights
On December 16, 2021, Hassan stated: “A set of arcane Senate rules are being used as an excuse not to act. This cannot stand. We must change the rules to allow a simple majority of this body … to pass laws that will protect the right to vote and protect American democracy.”
Democrats were FOR the filibuster before they were AGAINST the filibuster.
The filibuster was a Senate rule until 2013 when then Majority Leader Harry Reid lead Democrats to vote for the “nuclear option” and eliminated the filibuster when approving executive branch and judicial nominees. Then, as now, Senate Democrats were for the filibuster until it impeded their political agenda.
While opposing a threat to end the filibuster, Sen. Chuck Schumer said in 2005:
We are on the precipice of a crisis, a constitutional crisis. The checks and balances which have been at the core of this republic are about to be evaporated by the nuclear option. The checks and balances which say that if you get 51% of the vote, you don’t get your way 100% of the time. That … is what we call abuse of power.”
Democrats will do or say whatever it takes to advance their agenda and influence elections.
In a bi-partisan April 7, 2017 letter, Sens. Shaheen, Hassan and 59 others, urged Senate Leadership to
“support our efforts to preserve existing rules, practices and traditions as they pertain to the right of Members to engage in extended debate on legislation before the United States Senate. We are asking you to join us in opposing any effort to curtail the existing rights and prerogatives of the Senators to engage in full, robust, and extended debate as we consider legislation before this body in the future.”
NH Senators state they will vote to end the filibuster to “protect our democracy” by passing S.2747.
Granite State Taxpayers and others have previously commented on H.R.1.
Space doesn’t permit a full commentary on S.2747 or further comments on the previous H.R. 1.
Suffice to say that the initiatives in S.2747 (same-day registration, elimination of voter-ID requirements, vote-by-mail, ballot harvesting, and more) will bring to every state the same types of new and unproven voting procedures that were a factor in diminishing the perception, if not the reality, of integrity in the 2020 election in many states.
– Secretary of State Bill Gardner has publicly opposed H.R. 1 and it’s initiatives, as well as S.2747.
– Polls show that a high majority of NH voters (76% in a June 2021 poll) consider requiring Voter ID to be essential in insuring election integrity.
– The bi-partisan Secretary of State Select Committee reported, on June 5, 2020, that (see page 18) checklists contain names of people who are no longer residents and people who are not even alive. They concluded that: “a general mailing of un-requested absentee ballots to everyone on the state’s checklists would result in probably thousands of ballots lying around unclaimed. For obvious reasons, this would be problematic.”
Our US Senators were elected to represent the citizens of New Hampshire.
They should respect their opinions and act on their behalf.
They should vote against ending (or “modifying” or “restructuring”) the filibuster and against S.2747.
The “Freedom to Vote” Act is currently under discussion in the US Senate in Washington.
Sens. Shaheen and Hassan have already voted to close debate and vote on S.2747. The cloture vote failed.
So Sen. Schumer and the Democrats will need to kill, or “amend” the filibuster to vote on S.2747.
To take over US elections, Democrats will need the votes of all of their 50 Senators, plus the Vice President.
Schumer needs our Senators, Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan to help him.
You can click on their names for their contact information.
Tell them to vote NO on killing the Filibuster and vote NO on S.2747 The Voter Freedom Act!
Tell them to return to the pro-filibuster position they expressed on April 7, 2017.
Posted by GST Chairman Ray Chadwick.