ExclusiveBehind MASSIVE Mail-in-Ballot Push #frontpageshow #frontpageexclusive

Critics warn about the federal government's vast reach that will not equally benefit Democrats and Republicans in the voter registration effort. On March 6th, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. Watson claimed that agencies under Garland's control attempted to register people including felons who were ineligible to vote. He also alleged that they co-opt state and local officials to accomplish this goal. The allegation relates to President Joe Biden's Executive Order 14019. The Executive Order 14019 states, the head of each agency shall evaluate ways in which the agency can, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, promote voter registration and voter participation. Watson wrote that this order has forced U.S. Marshals to modify more than 900 contracts with prisons and jails. These contracts provide voter registration documents and facilitate inmate mail-in voting. Watson argued that it is unacceptable that the Biden Administration and the Department of Justice intentionally undermine Mississippi's election integrity. Yet the Department of Justice's work to register prison voters is just the tip of the iceberg. Other agencies, including the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development also conduct campaigns to sign up new voters. On February 26, Vice President Kamala Harris lauded the federal plan to use work-study grants in order to pay students to register voters. In addition, Joe Biden's Executive Order directed federal agencies to provide voter registration services on agency premises. However, critics assert that elections are under state jurisdiction, not the federal government. Stuart Witson, the Legal Director of the Foundation for Government Accountability, the FGA, which is a conservative think tank, argues that this is such a big problem because with the President, only one political party is in power. Witson said, if you allow the President to be the one to decide where all these massive resources are channeled, that's problematic. He added that this is why the founders gave election authority to states and not to the federal executive. Since Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14019, several attempts have been made to learn how federal agencies will implement it. This includes which private organizations it has selected to work out of federal offices alongside government officials. Several departments refused to release this information and requests were followed up with FOIA filings and lawsuits. However, the Biden administration kept defying the requests. In July of 2021, the FGA filed a FOIA request regarding Joe Biden's voting access plan. The FGA sought information about what federal agencies were doing to implement the plan. It also sought records of planning and strategy meetings among Joe Biden's staff and federal agencies and the architects of the Executive Order 14019. Witson warned that these documents, in any other context, would be handed over much more quickly. So this indicates to us that there's something there the Biden administration really does not care to share because they've withheld it for nearly three years now. The American First Legal Foundation, which is another plaintiff in a FOIA lawsuit, also described Executive Order 14019 as Joe Biden's effort to deploy federal agencies to facilitate partisan voting operations. In addition, the Executive Order strengthens private organizations that are working to undermine state election integrity laws. Now you might wonder, how do federal agencies enact Executive Order 14019? The Department of Health and Human Services, the HHS, is the most prominent federal agency that enforces this Executive Order. In 2022, the HHS announced that federal health centers would participate in activities outside their core responsibilities, including voter registration. So how do they do that? The HHS provides voter registration materials to patients and they encourage patients to register to vote. They also assist patients with completing registration forms and sending completed forms to election authorities. In addition, they provide voter registration materials in waiting rooms. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has instructed more than 3,000 public housing authorities to conduct voter registration drives in some 1.2 million public housing units nationwide. The Department of Education sent a letter to universities directing them to use federal work-study funds to support voter registration activities. However, according to Scott Walter, the president of the Capital Research Center, the Department of Education has been particularly active in turning out likely Democrat voters. Walter noted the Department of Education in 2022 was threatening campuses that you better be registering students or you could lose your federal funds. And the Department of Agriculture issued letters to state agencies that are administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Women's Infants and Children's Low Income Food Program and instructed these programs to conduct voter registration activities with federal funds. So has there been any reaction to these voter registration efforts? In May of 2023, a group of Republican senators introduced a bill that would prohibit federal agencies from using taxpayer funds or from collaborating with private organizations to mobilize voters. In November of 2023, Representative Claudia Tenney amended the 2020 For Appropriations Bill. This amendment would prohibit federal agency funding from being used to implement Executive Order 14019. A voice vote passed the amendment, but the bill is currently stalled in Congress. Simultaneously, 24 Republican legislators in Pennsylvania filed a federal complaint against Joe Biden, Governor Josh Shapiro, and representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of State. The complaint argues that they had usurped the authority of the legislature by changing voter registration and election rules. So they asked the judge to declare three actions unconstitutional. They requested that the judge issue an order to prohibit Joe Biden, the governor, and state executives from making future changes to the election process in Pennsylvania.