Despite facing dangerous election bills in Congress, conservatives are succeeding in restoring election integrity on the state level and can do even more if Americans get increasingly active.
That was the message of Ken Cuccinelli, the national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative (ETI), at an event hosted on Tuesday by American Majority — a conservative organization that trains political candidates — at a Pizza Ranch in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Several dozen concerned Americans gathered to listen to him lay out a roadmap for reforming American elections and ensuring their trustworthiness.
Cuccinelli has held multiple state and federal offices, serving as a Virginia state senator before his election as Virginia’s attorney general in 2010. He also served in the Trump administration from 2019 to 2021, working as both the director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and as the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Despite serving in the latter two positions in an acting capacity, the Senate refused to confirm Cuccinelli due to opposition from establishment Republicans.
Laying the Roadmap
Cuccinelli began his presentation by emphasizing the crisis in confidence in American elections. He noted a poll by Scott Rasmussen finding low confidence in the accuracy of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and cited this as evidence that the U.S. had “fallen behind” in ensuring secure election results. Cuccinelli is correct, and as The John Birch Society has noted, this deterioration did not begin with the 2020 election, but has been occurring for many years.
In the main part of his presentation, Cuccinelli laid out the roadmap for reforming American elections that his organization and others are following. In short, he described it as going on “defense in Washington” and “offense in the states.”
Beginning with the former, Cuccinelli discussed several bills working their way through Congress that would decimate election integrity if passed. One of these is the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” numbered H.R. 4, which passed the House and is pending in the Senate. It would reimpose a “preclearance” process similar to, and more draconian than, what had previously existed in the 1965 Voting Rights Act before being struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013. If passed, H.R. 4 would give the U.S. Department of Justice and its left-wing bureaucrats unilateral power to pick and choose which state election laws can be enforced.
Cuccinelli also warned listeners about the “For the People Act,” which would impose a total federalization of American election laws and severely compromise election integrity. Since this bill failed to pass the Senate, Democrats are now attempting to pass a “compromise” — between the far-left and establishment Democrats, as Cuccinelli noted — bill titled the “Freedom to Vote Act” which would implement many of the same policies.
Despite racial minorities and even many Democrat voters supporting increased election integrity, as Cuccinelli noted, leadership is pushing such bills for a variety of reasons. These include fear of being primaried by far-left opponents, a desire to rig U.S. election laws to favor the Democratic Party, and a fear of pro-integrity reforms at the state level. Cuccinelli emphasized that this intense urge by Democrats to pass extremist election legislation is even putting the filibuster at risk of being abolished.
Although the bills discussed above are blatantly unconstitutional, Cuccinelli warned that it is imperative to defeat them in Congress, rather than rely on court challenges after enactment. Many judges, he said, would likely interpret Article I, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution as broadly granting Congress the power to federalize elections. In reality, this section does not justify any legislation resembling what Democrats are proposing, illustrating the judiciary’s increasing disregard of the Constitution.
Success in the States
While emphasizing the necessity of opposing dangerous legislation in Congress, Cuccinelli also noted the many states that had passed legislation increasing election integrity. Indeed, as the left-wing Brennan Center has tabulated, since January, 18 states have passed 30 laws that strengthen integrity in some form.
Not only did Cuccinelli celebrate the state-level election reforms, but he noted that on this issue, conservatives are more united than ever before. “I have never seen such cohesion and cooperation” by conservative organizations, he remarked. This unity has enabled Republican-controlled state legislatures to take greater action than they have on most other issues.
Although several states with Republican legislatures — including Louisiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — are unable to enact election-integrity bills due to Democrat governors’ vetoes, Cuccinelli still encouraged them to advance such legislation. Not only would it help hold those governors accountable, but it would pave the way for the enactment of such legislation if and when Republican governors are elected.
Nonetheless, Cuccinelli implied there is much more work to be done. When briefly discussing Georgia’s election-integrity law, S.B. 202, he noted that although the state “made some fixes,” there is “more work to do.” This is best described as an overstatement since, as The New American reported, the law actually undermined election integrity in several regards.
Cuccinelli stated that pro-integrity reformers face other challenges, namely ending early voting. Despite its serious problems, most states allow early voting, with Cuccinelli noting that “Election Day” in his state actually lasts 45 days. However, as many people find it convenient, it will be challenging to convince Americans of the necessity of curtailing it. Nonetheless, it is imperative that reformers do this.
What Patriots Can Do
Cuccinelli devoted much of his presentation to explaining what Americans can do to restore election integrity. The first recommendation he mentioned was to become active in contacting elected officials. Not only does it put pressure on them to vote correctly, but for officials who already vote the right way on election integrity, it can encourage them to become more outspoken. This is also a relatively simple task, as many organizations, including The John Birch Society, make it easy to get in touch with one’s officials.
Cuccinelli also emphasized the importance of getting involved in the election process, specifically becoming an election official. Unlike poll watchers, election officials are directly involved in conducting elections, and being “on the inside” helps ensure that election results are accurate.
According to Cuccinelli, conservatives are signing up as election officials in far greater numbers than previous years. He pointed to his state of Virginia, which in a month will hold its gubernatorial election, and stated that greater conservative involvement is already making an impact in ensuring the election’s accuracy.
Another excellent way for patriots to make an impact is to get involved in The John Birch Society’s Restore Election Integrity action project. In addition to having informative educational materials, the JBS sends out legislative alerts to keep Americans informed developments in Congress and state legislatures. One can also start an Election Integrity Committee to build awareness and support for common-sense election reforms.
By educating themselves and others, and by taking action in an organized manner, Americans can and will reverse the decades of deterioration in our electoral system.
