Utah Rep. Blake Moore was candid about his opposition to a controversial Democratic voting rights reform proposal during a recent telephone town hall meeting with constituents in northern Utah.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Blake Moore (R-District 1) rebuffed charges of hypocrisy during a recent telephone town hall meeting with constituents in northern Utah’s 1st Congressional District.

“If I’m a headline writer for the (Salt Lake) Tribune,” a caller charged, “I’ve got my headline. It’s that Republicans and Congressman Moore actively oppose Dr. (Martin Luther) King, Jr. and his work (on voting rights).”

That accusation came just days after the national MLK holiday and while the U.S. Senate was in the process of narrowly defeating a Democratic attempt to pass a so-called voting rights reform proposal.

Moore replied that the Democrats and the national media are pushing a false narrative that GOP efforts to preserve the integrity of elections by opposing House Resolution 1 are motivated by racism.

I support legislation that makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” Moore argued. “Requiring voter identification is something that I’m proud to stand for. This legislation would weaken voter ID requirements and make it easier to skirt (election) laws.”

H.R. 1 – a controversial voting rights and election reform proposal which Democrats have dubbed the ‘For the People Act of 2021’ – was rammed through the House of Representatives on March 3 of last year without a single Republican vote.

Biden administration officials have stated that enactment of H.R. 1 is necessary to counter attempts by GOP dominated state governments to tighten election laws in the wake of the disputed results of the general election of 2020.

If passed by both houses of Congress, H.R. 1 would implement nationwide automatic voter registration; restore the franchise for convicted felons; expand mail-in, early and absentee voting opportunities; prohibit states from routinely purging their voter rolls; ban voter identification requirements; and establish a new taxpayer-funded financing system for congressional and presidential elections.

Republican leaders say that states are merely restoring election laws that were waived by federal mandates during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. They also condemn H.R. 1 as a federal power grab that would usurp the states’ constitutional authority to manage their own elections.

After H.R. 1 stalled in the Senate — where 60 votes are required to pass the controversial proposal – the Biden administration began to push to revise Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster.

The Senate tradition of the filibuster allows unlimited debate to delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment or other debatable question. The Senate’s rules require 60 senators to support ending a filibuster on most legislation.

That change would have allowed Senate Democrats to pass H.R. 1 with a simple majority of 51 votes.

That attempt was defeated on Jan. 21, however, thanks to Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who voted with their Republican colleagues to uphold the Senate’s traditional procedures.

In his recent telephone town hall, Moore was unapologetic about his personal opposition to the provisions of H.R. 1.

“I don’t support this legislation,” he explained, “because it weakens states’ ability to enforce voter identification rules … and would fund political campaigns with public funds.”

“I urge every state to copy what Utah does,” he added. “We embrace mail-in balloting. We embrace ballot drop-boxes that are centrally located …

“I think Utah has the perfect model for fair elections where we’ve grown the number of people voting but we still have (election integrity) safeguards in place.”



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