Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee said Wednesday that Democrats are seeking long-term power by pushing their H.R.1 voting bill, legislation he says was “written in hell by the Devil himself.”
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“I think I disagree with every single word in H.R.1, including the words ‘but,’ ‘and’ and ‘the.’ Everything about this bill is rotten to the core. This is a bill as if written in hell by the Devil himself,” Lee told “Fox & Friends.”
Lee said the bill, also known as the For the People Act, “takes all sorts of decisions that the federal government really has no business making.” (RELATED: ‘Trilogy Of Radical Policy’: Lindsey Graham Says Three Democratic Bills Mean America ‘Will Not Be The Nation You Remember’)
Lee said the legislation takes voting registration “away from the states” and concentrates that power “right here in Washington D.C. by Congress.”
The senator suggested the reason for the transfer of authority is “apparently in an effort to ensure an institutional revolutionary Democratic Party of sorts, one that can remain in power for many decades to come.”
Lee said that the American electoral process has always been managed at the state and local level.
“They are completely flipping that principle on its head so that these things can be micromanaged from Washington. That’s wrong, it’s really wrong. It’s bad policy.”
He also said that it is “wildly unconstitutional.” (RELATED: ‘Let Me Finish!’: Matt Schlapp And Chris Hahn Have Heated Battle Over Voter ID Laws)
The senator agreed that everyone who has a right to vote should be allowed to vote but that is a principle that needs to be enforced at the state level. “This can’t be done effectively from Washington. You concentrate that much power here, bad things are going to happen.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (C), Democrat of California, speaks alongside Democratic members of the House about H.R.1, the “For the People Act,” at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, Jan. 4, 2019. -(Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The legislation is wide in scope and includes a mandate to force states to allow mail-in voting by virtually anyone choosing to do so. The state would not be authorized to demand identification in the process.
H.R. 1 will also require states to automatically register all voters — even if that potential voter has not yet reached the age of 18. However, the voting age will remain at 18.
The legislation would also exempt people from presenting identification when voting.
One late addition to the bill was the Foreign Agent Disclaimer Enhancement (FADE) Act, which would authorize the federal attorney general to make social media outlets take down any posts by agents of a foreign country. These posts can only remain online if they are clearly identified as originating from outside of the U.S.
Convicted felons would also be allowed to vote once they have been released from prison.