Vice President Kamala Harris this week laid out Democrats’ “four-part strategy” to use the full force of the federal government to drive more votes for Biden — a plan election integrity experts say defies federal law, reported M.D. Kittle in an article for The Federalist.
Yes, this is of course illegal, but that never stops Democrats in their quest to retain power wrote our friend Stephen Moore in a recent issue of his Committee to Unleash Prosperity Hotline, which alerted us to that travesty. (BTW – the Hotline is free and we encourage you to sign-up.)
Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris held a closed-door meeting with left-wing voting activists and then announced a “four-part strategy” to use the full force of the federal government to create a voter turnout operation that’s designed to aid Biden’s re-election.
“Today, we gather to lay out a four-part strategy to protect the freedom to vote. The first part is the work that the president and I have done to charge every federal agency to do all they can to make sure that every American has the information that they need to know how they can vote when they are eligible,” Harris said Tuesday before convening a “closed-door meeting” at the White House with leftist voting activists.
Tuesday’s announcement and recent guidance by the U.S. Department of Education point to an urgency on the part of the administration to activate the full machinery of what has been described as “Bidenbucks” — the use of federal agencies and resources to target likely left-leaning voters to turn out for November’s pivotal presidential election. It appears federal agencies are carrying out with greater zeal President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14019. Signed shortly after the Democrat took office, the order deputizes federal agencies to expand voter registration and turnout — using White House “approved” third-party organizations to help get the GOTV job done.
That’s not the domain of the executive branch, but team Biden doesn’t care about such extraneous details.
For example. the Education Department will use work-study funds to pay students for ‘get-out-the-vote activities, voter registration … or serving as a poll worker.’
The Department of Education this week issued a memo, as a follow-up to a 2022 “Dear Colleague” letter, clarifying that Federal Work-Study (FWS) funds may be used to support “broad-based get-out-the-vote activities, voter registration, providing voter assistance at a polling place or through a voter hotline, or serving as a poll worker.”
The work-study program, which coincidentally is on the chopping block in a languishing House appropriations bill, is part of the suite of financial aid offered to college students, who can earn paychecks in “work-study” jobs. Those positions, generally on campus, haven’t included get-out-the-vote efforts — that is, until the implementation of the Bidenbucks initiative.
DOE argues that under the Higher Education Act of 1965, eligible postsecondary institutions are required to “make a good faith effort to distribute a mail voter registration form, requested and received from the State, to each student enrolled in a degree or certificate program and physically in attendance at the institution, and to make such forms widely available to students at the institution.”
In the 2022 letter, the Office of Postsecondary Education wrote:
FWS funds cannot be used for employment by a Federal, State, or local public agency, or a private nonprofit organization, other than the institution, for work involving partisan or nonpartisan political activity, including party-affiliated voter registration activities, as this is expressly prohibited under 34 CFR 675.22(b)(5).
But suddenly, the Department of Education has a different reading. The agency now insists it’s just fine to use Federal Work-Study funds for get-out-the-vote efforts if you squint hard enough, observed Mr. Kittle in The Federalist.
The Department of Homeland Security will register voters during naturalization ceremonies, something private groups used to do.
All of the Social Security Administration’s 1,200 offices and all national parks will display signs urging voter registration.
And liberal groups are working directly with federal agencies on voter registration, including the Department of Agriculture, which was exposed by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
The USDA worked directly with Demos, a New York-based group that helped draft Biden’s Executive Order 14019, according to records obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet.)
Biden signed his order on agencies and voter registration in March 2021. On Aug. 9, 2021, Demos’ Adam Lioz emailed USDA officials, many in the office of Secretary Tom Vilsack, under the subject line: “Demos Meeting on Voting Rights EO.”
As The Daily Signal previously reported, the Biden administration carved out paid administrative leave to encourage federal bureaucrats and other employees—seen as a loyal Democrat constituency—to volunteer as poll workers during elections.
The Daily Signal also reported that federal agencies are working with Demos and other liberal advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union.
Many congressional Republicans have joined government watchdog groups in expressing concern about agencies’ engaging in partisan political activity under Biden’s executive order, in violation of laws such as the Hatch Act.
Unfortunately, it appears that House Republicans are giving up their best opportunity to stop this weaponization of the federal government by failing to defund these activities in this year’s spending bills.
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Federal work study program
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Department of Homeland Security