‘As we all become more savvy in terms of technology one would say we can transfer that to remote voting but it’s not that easy…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tried Thursday to slam the brakes on a call for remote-voting in Congress while continuing to push for the November presidential election to move to mail-in-only ballots.
As members of Congress remain in their home districts, many subject to stay-at-home orders issued by states or voluntary self-quarantines, the House has been filing its bills electronically and working remotely via conference call,
But Pelosi has insisted on using the existing voice-vote and unanimous-consent rules for the passage of legislation. That means a single objector can derail the process, forcing a quorum of House members to be physically present.
“As we all become more savvy in terms of technology one would say we can transfer that to remote voting but it’s not that easy,” Pelosi told reporters on a conference call, according to the Washington Times.
Pelosi rightfully voiced concern that remote ballot-casting could be compromised. Recent technology failures like the Democratic caucus in Iowa underscore the potential for application crashes or glitches, as well as the ongoing worry of foreign interference.
“There are some technologies that you might think would be workable—they might not be secure,” Pelosi said.
The San Francisco liberal is reportedly mulling rules such as proxy voting, but she claimed that doing so would be a painstakingly slow process.
“The rules are what they are now,” she said. “If the rules need to be changed, it needs to be done carefully. It took three years to change the rules after 9/11.”
Perplexingly, her refusal to implement House rules changes comes at the same time that Democrats are attempting an all-out push to move the November election to mail-only ballots.
GOP leaders including President Donald Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel have all made clear that the proposal is a nonstarter due to the high potential for ballot fraud.
Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans. @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2020
States like California, which legally allows ballot-harvesting, have revealed the corruption and the logistical problems with heavy reliance on absentee voting.
“You want to hold up the bill because you want to change election law for November, because you think that gives you some political benefit?” McCarthy told reporters during a press call Thursday, according to Politico.
“That’s disgusting to me. … Stop worrying about politics,” he continued. “Worry about what’s in front of us. And that’s the health of the nation … and our economy.”
Yet, several far-left senators, including Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.,; Chris Coons, D-Del.; and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., continued to press the matter in a press teleconference on Thursday, plugging a new bill to earmark billions of dollars for remote voting in the general election.
“Americans shouldn’t have to choose between their health and casting a ballot,” Klobuchar claimed. “And it is wrong to shortchange our election officials as we provide relief to address the effects of this global pandemic.”
Recent revisions to the coronavirus‘s initial projections indicate that the pandemic will be smaller in its scale and faster in peaking than many media fearmongerers suggested.
It is unlikely that the virus will loom as a major contagion threat in November, although common-sense sanitation and social-distancing measures may still be advisable.
Nonetheless, Democrats have been unrelenting in their efforts to drag out the crisis and to milk it for every possible ounce of political leverage.
The crisis was “a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision,” admitted House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-SC, in a conference call with about 200 fellow Democratic members of Congress.
A bit of a clap back from republicans. pic.twitter.com/8iiwtHs4HC
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 23, 2020
Pelosi has been at the forefront of the cynical opportunism. Her own efforts have included an attempt to add pork from the Left’s agenda into a crucial coronavirus relief bill and the appointment of Clyburn to lead a partisan oversight committee on the health crisis.
That, naturally, included a flip–flop on her concerns over voting security and integrity. On the same day she dismissed the possibility of letting the House vote remotely, she continued to bolster left-wing talking points about allowing the entire country to do so.
“We have a different value system about what voting means to a democracy,” Pelosi asserted during a call with reporters, according to The Hill. “Clearly, we want to remove all obstacles to participation.”
Pelosi and many other left-wingers have ignored blatant evidence of ballot fraud. Several stories by the left-leaning Associated Press have, for example, falsely suggested, without evidence, that “Experts have said vote fraud of any type is extremely rare.”
In fact, some of the most vocal advocates in the Left’s current call for mail-in voting have hypocritically represented the other side amid claims of abuse by Republicans.
By sowing chaos and confusion on Election Day, Democrats hope to tap into their historical ability to use the courts to reverse electoral outcomes in their favor.
But Pelosi made no mention of the fraud issues in her defense of the mail-in voting push. Rather, she redirected the question into another Republican-bashing opportunity, claiming Trump and his supporters were opposed to democracy.
“It had been a Grand Old Party. It had been hijacked, I know,” Pelosi ranted. “But nonetheless … Republicans know how to vote by mail.”