U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith sharply criticized a planned “show vote” on the Democrats’ radical election reform legislation, which would place federal controls and mandates on every state.
Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, joined 15 colleagues at a news conference Thursday to condemn next week’s procedural vote on S.1. The lawmakers stressed that the bill has bipartisan opposition and will not receive the 60 votes required to proceed to debate.
“This so-called reform bill is anything but reform. In the Senate and the House, the only bipartisanship is the opposition to it. We have a lot of serious things that Senator Schumer could be bringing to the floor right now. This is nothing but a power grab for Democrats to stay in control,” Hyde-Smith said.
“Voter integrity, election integrity is a serious, serious issue, and it should be bipartisan. We all should be striving to get there. This is not bipartisan. It is wrong and I fully oppose this bill,” she said.
Hyde-Smith said she has consistently opposed S.1 for its many flawed provisions, including the those to eliminate election security measures like Mississippi’s successful Voter ID initiative. “The sweeping measure would, among other things, force taxpayers to finance political campaigns, legalize and expand ballot harvesting, mandate automatic registration, and turn the bipartisan Federal Election Commission into a partisan political body.”
