Congresswoman Susan W. Brooks (R-Ind.-05) provided the following statement after she voted against H.R. 1:
Brooks
“Working to ensure elections are secure and free of fraud should be a bipartisan effort. Instead, House Democrats advanced H.R. 1, which is a federal takeover of our election process, in a constitutionally questionable way without Republican input.
“Voters across the country deserve increased election security, yet H.R.1 will force states to allow sworn statements to be used in place of identification at the polls, online voter registration, automatic voter registration and same-day voter registration without enforcement mechanisms to guard against vote fraud.
“Most egregiously, this partisan bill funnels hard-earned taxpayer dollars into political campaigns of candidates whom the taxpayer may not support. Specifically, H.R. 1 authorizes the use of taxpayer funds to match small political donations $200 or less at a 6-to-1 ratio with no requirements to disclose who or what organization gave the money. This decreases the transparency of campaign finance and ultimately, our election process. Furthermore, H.R. 1 turns the FEC into a partisan commission rather than the bipartisan commission that it is today.
“Congress should empower states to maintain their own voter rolls in order to process voters in a timely manner on Election Day, avoid unfunded mandates and manage voter lists to avoid voting irregularities. States should be able to choose the voting mechanisms that work best for their communities without being forced to a federally mandated system.”