Mitch McConnell has ignored the will of the American people by blocking reform legislation
In their latest attempt at obstruction, Senate Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, blocked three election security bills yesterday. McConnell, who refers to his efforts blocking legislation as his “legislative graveyard”, has refused to bring a total of ten election security bills up for a vote or debate in the Senate.
“Senator Mitch McConnell is once again refusing to act on what the American people want,” said End Citizens United Action Fund President Tiffany Muller. “The integrity of our elections is of utmost importance. The House has done its job to pass critical election security bills, like the For the People Act, SHIELD Act, and SAFE Act, but the Senate has failed to do the same. Trust in government is at an all-time low because politicians like Mitch McConnell are stonewalling legislation that shouldn’t be partisan.”
The first bill introduced in the House in 2019 was the For the People Act (H.R. 1), a sweeping anti-corruption bill that would require states to replace outdated voting machines and provide grants to states to enhance their election security, as well as close campaign finance disclosure loopholes that allow foreign entities to secretly buy political ads. The House later passed the SAFE Act (H.R. 2722), which would hold election technology vendors accountable by setting strong cybersecurity standards, authorize a $600 million grant program to assist in securing election infrastructure, and require voting systems to use individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballots. The House also passed the SHIELD Act (H.R. 4617), which would require reporting of campaign assistance from foreign governments, and close loopholes that allow foreign nationals and foreign governments to spend in U.S. elections. All of these pieces of legislation would help ensure that our elections are protected from interference from foriegn countries, like the Russian interference that occurred in the 2016 election. All of these bills have been declared dead on arrival by Mitch McConnell.
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