One of the worst affronts to the collective dignity of a supposedly “free society” is the active undermining of the expression of free voices via the vote. Shockingly, otherwise reasonable and rational Americans actually entertain irrational talking points that will disempower voters by disenfranchising most American citizens under the guise of new “voters’ rights.” Make no mistake, the newfangled “voters’ rights legislation” is specifically designed to utterly disempower, not empower and encourage voters’ rights.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Act

New “voters’ rights legislation,” cynically named the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, is a scheme designed to deliver federally prescribed political outcomes. The Act is expressly designed to assure the will and desires of American citizens are not freely expressed through the ballot box. Such legislation is regressive and dangerous to our democratic republic. 

Here’s why. Currently, States have the sole authority to conduct and ensure the validity of their elections. The Act snatches away the States’ authority, giving ultimate unlimited governing power over the voting process to the Federal government. The Federal government commandeers oversight of when elections are conducted, where conducted, how ballots are delivered and collected, who gets ballots and what systems or infrastructure to use to tally the final vote counts. This is obviously a tremendous amount of power.

History confirms: Collecting and moving this amount of information coordination (hundreds of millions of data points in one to two days) is much more efficient when carried out at the state level. Why would the federal government want to take over this behemoth 50-state project? Why are federal power groups willing to fight so hard (even by terminating the Senate’s filibuster rule) to get this done? The logical answer: They seek to wield more control over the outcomes of elections far into the future.

Evidently, the federal government doesn’t want to ensure hearing the will and desires of voters that make a democratic republic, and they want to move toward outcomes that follow certain desired trends. The Act will enable the placement of unmanned ballot boxes and vote “harvesting” procedures, potentially fraudulent online or mailbox/mail-in systems, and permitting non-citizens to vote (thereby canceling the votes of citizens). The results of the Act’s power grab, ironically, will guarantee voter disenfranchisement for all American citizen voters.

Past Voter Disenfranchisement

In the past, voter disenfranchisement usually meant any barriers that disproportionately prevented certain communities from expressing themselves via their vote. Often, people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would express outrage about Blacks being disenfranchised when seemingly onerous conditions, such as voter identity cards and the lack of convenient access to voting booths/stations, imposed unequal treatment of the Black community as compared to other communities.

Today, for all intents and purposes, American citizens over the age of 18 who are not convicted felons can easily vote. Most (if not all) states offer free identification for citizens who don’t possess a driver’s license. Recycled old tropes about Blacks not being able to get access to IDs are untrue, racist and demeaning. In today’s world, you cannot survive without an ID. Last century’s specific voter disenfranchisement issues related to voter IDs are effectively gone. 

Systemic Disenfranchisement

Bizarrely, the John Lewis Act seeks to move voter disenfranchisement from specific to systemic. Instead of mitigating any remaining specific instances of voter disenfranchisement, certain power groups in the federal government aim to implement systemic changes that will ultimately disenfranchise every American voter. This legislation will effectively allow votes made up of dead people, duplicate ballots, illegal/migrant voters (non-citizens), and people who have moved out of the jurisdiction.

Since every illegal or fraudulent vote neutralizes every legal citizen vote, this federal voting rights legislation that also encourages “ballot harvesting,” mail-in ballots, no citizenship or ID requirements, and reliance upon unreliable voting machines/infrastructure, the new laws will effectively disenfranchise all American citizens under the guise of “progress.” Can willful systemic disenfranchisement be any more obvious?

All Legal Votes Matter

In a democratic republic, all votes matter. All citizen voters are disenfranchised when illegal votes are encouraged and counted (even if the federal government is sponsoring it). Every Black Life Matters (EBLM) resolutely demands integrity and full transparency in our electoral processes.

Every legal vote and every voter matters to our ability to successfully move forward as a country. That’s why Every Black Life Matters stands against all fraud, cheating, and undermining of American voices at the ballot box. Therefore, we publicly denounce the deceptively named John Lewis Voting Rights Act. This Act undermines the U.S. Constitution and invades the province of states’ authority. Please stand with us as we oppose all manner of systemic voter disenfranchisement. EBLM unequivocally demands the universal embrace of the highest levels of voter integrity in U.S. elections. Stand with us against this Act! 

Kevin McGary is co-founder and president of Every Black Life Matters.