Thread by @DempseyTwo

On March 11, 2021, the House of Representatives sent House Resolution 1 to the Senate. You may have heard of it as HR1 but do you really know what is in the Bill? Let’s take a deep dive into it and see shall we...🧵👇🏻
TLDR: #HR1FixesThat

congress.gov/bill/117th-con…

You’ve heard HR1 described as ‘absolutely devastating to Republicans.’ Why? It is because all the tricks used to win elections by voter suppression, dark money, disinformation and foreign influence are all exposed.

This is HR1: An Act to expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy, and for other purposes.

Wow! That’s a lot to take in. At its core, this is a democracy strengthening bill. But it is more than that. This is more like if that party in Weird Science was never reversed and Wyatt’s parents came home to find the mess.

This bill is actually an indictment. It is an indictment against the Republicans who threw a killer party complete with gun wielding fascistic motorcyclists doing donuts in the dining room and stuffing grandma and grandpa in the closet.

It’s disturbing the amount of things that are in this bill from the perspective that they are needed. This is not only an indictment of the Republicans but Democrats as well. This bill proves that we can not be complacent with our democracy but need to work for it every election.

This bill is the Democrats coming home to find they thought they could the trust Republicans but see now that the place is completely wrecked. No room is spared. Right now 43 states (43!!) have bills in state legislatures that are attempting to weaken or rollback voting rights.

The bill is huge. They needed to do a lot to address each of these categories. To best provide information, I will pick out the items most likely to have media attention if any. (Things you may hear about)

I will provide the section numbers of the bill for your further research.

Alright, alright, jeez Joe, What’s in the bill already?
The House breaks it down into 3 categories :
Voting
Campaign Finance
Ethics

VOTING
Sec 1001. Requires availability of internet for voter registration.

Think about this, there are entire states where if you don’t have access to the internet, the state has made it more difficult for you to vote.
#HR1FixesThat

VOTING
Sec 1005. Prohibit state from requiring applicants to provide more than 4 digits of the Social Security number.

Buried deep in this part of the bill is super important because the language erases this...

(ii) enable State election officials to assess the eligibility of the applicant and to administer voter registration and other parts of the election process;

Why is that important? Because the first part is where states can exploit the ambiguity of the words ‘assess the eligibility’ to suppress voting.
#HR1FixesThat by including more people in the voting process.

And Republicans who are worried about voter fraud, this is for you. Because that means the person trying to register to vote, has a Social Security number. Which means...election security.
#HR1FixesThat

VOTING
Sec 1012. Automatic Registration of Eligible Individuals

This creates an opt out process. Let’s say you decide you want to vote on voting day. All year you’ve been thinking about it, but now you decide, yea, I want to vote today. But you’re not registered. Bummer...

You can’t vote.
#HR1FixesThat because you didn’t opt out when you got your license.

VOTING
Sec 1041. Conditions on removal of registrants from official lists.
This is voter role purging.
You’ve heard this in the context of dead people being on the voter lists. But what happens? People show up to vote who aren’t dead but can’t because they’ve been purged.

#HR1FixesThat by requiring a cross check matching process. They can’t just arbitrarily remove someone from a voting list anymore.

VOTING
Sec 1071. Prohibit hindering, interfering with or preventing voter registration.

A hypothetical voter wants to register. Your state doesn’t allow on line registration changes so you go down to the clerks office. The clerk sees you’re wearing a certain hat and says ‘no’.

#HR1FixesThat by making it a federal crime if anyone prevents another from trying to register to vote.

VOTING
This bill is inclusive...
Sec 1103. Pilot program for enabling individuals with disabilities to register privately and independently at residences.

Right now, there are Americans homebound with disabilities. They have a real stake in our their government is run too.

But some illness are so restrictive that voting may not be an option.
#HR1FixesThat

Sec 1302. Prohibition on deceptive practices in federal elections.

Remember robocalls about how you could just text your vote and it was a scam? Remember all the false statements about the elections?
#HR1FixesThat by imposing fines of $100,000 and imprisonment up to 5 yrs.

Sec 1611. Early Voting

You want to vote in an upcoming election but just realized the best price to go to Cancun has put you on the beach on Election Day.
#HR1FixesThat by requiring a 15 day early voting period. Disfruta la playa!

Sec 1621. Voting by Mail

You want to vote by mail because you have Parkinson’s and are homebound. Your state requires a signature match for voting. But your handwriting has worsened. Will your vote count?
#HR1FixesThat by removing signature match requirements to vote by mail.

Sec 1904. Accommodations for voters residing in Indian lands.

You love the vast distances and pure views your land offers but getting to the voting booth requires a long journey.
#HR1FixesThat by allowing for buildings to be designated as ballot drop off points.

Sec 1909. Election Day as Legal Public Holiday

Are the voting lines in your area so long that you have to take off work just to vote? Worried you’re going to lose your job if you sneak out a few minutes early so you can vote? Ever decide to not vote because of this?

#HR1FixesThat by giving everyone a day off in November. You may be able to get a jump on Thanksgiving preparations too. Who knows? It’s your day now.

Remember when I said there were donuts on the dining room floor...
Sec 2401. Requiring congressional redistricting to be conducted through plan of independent state commission.
This goes to the heart of gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering. The way the Republicans have been able to win even while losing is because they drew the maps of who their voters can be.
#HR1FixesThat by establishing an independent commission to draw the lines for representation. Here is Jim Jordan’s district.

Sec 3201 - National Strategy to Protect United States Democratic Institutions
Foreign influence in your democracy? Elected officials trafficking in disinformation? Is your former guy aimed at undermining the security and integrity of democratic institutions?
#HR1FixesThat

Division 2 - CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Sec 4001 - Findings related to illicit money undermining our democracy.

Worried you may have a money launderer as an elected official? Maybe someone who took money from [REDACTED] unknown sources to undermine democracy?

#HR1FixesThat by instituting penalties of $500,000 and up to 5 years imprisonment or both or $1,000,000 and 5 years if you try to destroy evidence to conceal.

Let’s take a step back on that one. Why is it so important to pass this specifically? It’s because Congress has proof of what occurred in prior election cycles. Think about this for a minute. There never was a hoax.

https://twitter.com/DempseyTwo/status/1300998953614401540

Sec 4802 - limitations and disclosure of certain donations to and disbursements by inaugural committees.
Inaugural committees? Why so specific? Oh right...
#HR1FixesThat 👇🏻

https://twitter.com/dempseytwo/status/1365318550580310019

Sec 5001 - Findings related to Citizens United Decisions 👀
You guys, this is a big one. Is there a Boss Hogg in your town? Maybe he has all the money so he controls who is mayor, or State Senator or Governor or President.

#HR1FixesThat by recommending a Constitutional Amendment to set limits on spending money on elections.

Division 3 - ETHICS

Sec 7102 - Establishment of FARA investigation and enforcement unit within Department of Justice.
Have a former National Security Advisor who had to be pardoned because he failed to register as a foreign agent? How about a campaign manager?

#HR1FixesThat by imposing $1,000, $10,000, $200,000 fines for each violation.

Also, they specifically allocate $10,000,000 for the unit to do the investigations and say that all fines recovered will go to defray the costs of the unit. They must be expecting this to happen a lot...

Sec 10001 - Presidential and Vice Presidential tax transparency.
Had a candidate that won’t release beautiful taxes because they’re ‘under audit’ and goes to the Supreme Court to try to hide them?
#HR1FixesThat by requiring candidates for president to release 10 years of taxes.

There is a lot of good in HR1. As I’ve said before, you’ve heard this bill described as ‘absolutely devastating to Republicans.’ Why? If they don’t support this bill for democracy, then they’re saying they can’t win without cheating.

If this is devastating to Republicans, what are Republicans to our democracy then?
Call your Senators, tell them to vote for democracy and pass What the House sent them in HR1.
senate.gov/senators/senat…

This bill means democracy. HR1 is our democracy.

@TheDemocrats

There are a lot of important things in HR1. All of them designed to strengthen the democracy. This bill should pass 100-0. Pass this bill.
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