Full Transcript for How Do We Fix America's Elections? | Ken Cuccinelli

35 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:53.140 that sitting on the couch, throwing shoes at the television 36 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:56.530 when you feel strongly about something isn't very effective. And 37 00:01:56.569 --> 00:02:00.250 if you're the television, it's particularly bad. So I've always 38 00:02:00.310 --> 00:02:02.629 been a get off the couch and go try to 39 00:02:02.670 --> 00:02:08.620 affect things person. First locally, and the focus of my 40 00:02:08.659 --> 00:02:13.699 attention changed as years go on and opportunities arise. Served 41 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:19.210 in the first Trump administration, first running USCIS, which Joe 42 00:02:19.289 --> 00:02:24.370 Edlow now runs, also out of Heritage. And then I 43 00:02:24.430 --> 00:02:27.569 moved on to be the acting deputy secretary for the 44 00:02:27.610 --> 00:02:33.270 department for the last 15 months or so. Wasn't boring. 45 00:02:33.270 --> 00:02:42.319 2020 was an exciting year to be the deputy secretary 46 00:02:42.620 --> 00:02:47.979 and really the chief operating officer of a 250,000 person, 47 00:02:47.979 --> 00:02:54.750 $ 50 billion plus agency. that is on the front lines 48 00:02:54.789 --> 00:02:59.000 of American security. So it was exciting. I was happy 49 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:03.120 to work for President Trump. He's a unique character for sure. 50 00:03:03.819 --> 00:03:10.500 And after that administration, with several other friends and colleagues, 51 00:03:10.539 --> 00:03:15.770 we started the Election Transparency Initiative to try to secure 52 00:03:15.830 --> 00:03:19.949 elections and bring, as the name would suggest, transparency was 53 00:03:20.069 --> 00:03:23.550 one of the key goals we had. And I've worked 54 00:03:23.590 --> 00:03:26.370 on that ever since. That's been five and a half years. 55 00:03:26.569 --> 00:03:30.189 While practicing law, I still do constitutional law and a 56 00:03:30.289 --> 00:03:34.740 few other odds and ends here. Got some good gun cases. 57 00:03:34.909 --> 00:03:39.520 And Virginia, unfortunately, has been on the map for gun disputes, 58 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:43.280 gun law disputes. But the Supreme Court's just taken up 59 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:46.680 a couple of assault weapons ban cases. Going to, I hope, 60 00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:49.490 favorably affect us and many other states across the country. 61 00:03:50.460 --> 00:03:55.379 including litigation I'm active in now. So I try to 62 00:03:55.430 --> 00:03:58.569 keep my hand in the constitutional law side of practice 63 00:03:58.610 --> 00:04:04.009 of law, and in addition to working to secure elections. 64 00:04:04.889 --> 00:04:07.710 So we're here today to talk about specifically the Election 65 00:04:07.750 --> 00:04:11.509 Transparency Initiative. Can you lay out what that is, what 66 00:04:11.530 --> 00:04:15.139 the big goals are, and its relationship to heritage? Sure. 67 00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:18.910 So The Election Transparency Initiative, as I noted, started after 68 00:04:18.930 --> 00:04:24.129 I left the Trump administration, so February of 2021. And 69 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:30.000 since that time, we have worked to change legislation to 70 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:35.600 make elections run better, more securely, and critically transparently. Our 71 00:04:35.660 --> 00:04:38.889 gold standard is that you should be able to see 72 00:04:39.149 --> 00:04:43.290 every single thing that happens in your elections, except how 73 00:04:43.310 --> 00:04:46.790 your neighbors mark their ballots. right down to the computer 74 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:52.129 code on any machines used. And that means open source coding, 75 00:04:52.769 --> 00:04:57.379 not proprietary coding like Dominion and ESS and others use. Now, 76 00:04:57.389 --> 00:04:59.920 there's good reasons. If you're selling products, you might use 77 00:04:59.980 --> 00:05:05.779 proprietary code. But we have known for three decades that 78 00:05:05.860 --> 00:05:09.899 open source coding can work in a commercial space. And 79 00:05:10.689 --> 00:05:16.269 it's been fascinating. an extremely successful undertaking. It hasn't made 80 00:05:16.310 --> 00:05:19.410 its way into the election space yet. And we hope 81 00:05:19.470 --> 00:05:22.560 to achieve that. The other part of our gold standard, 82 00:05:22.579 --> 00:05:25.660 we're big fans of the KISS principle, keep it simple, stupid. 83 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:33.079 And I would say that the rapid, really exponential advance 84 00:05:33.139 --> 00:05:37.389 of artificial intelligence might finally be convincing people that we're 85 00:05:37.449 --> 00:05:41.290 right about this, that the best way forward is back. 86 00:05:41.870 --> 00:05:46.689 And that's paper ballots, count it on dumb tabulators, meaning 87 00:05:46.730 --> 00:05:49.389 there's no connections of any kind on the machine. And 88 00:05:49.449 --> 00:05:54.689 all it does is count the filled in bubbles on 89 00:05:54.769 --> 00:05:59.310 your Scantron sheet. And it happens right there in your 90 00:05:59.410 --> 00:06:04.189 precinct the night of the election. And a lot of 91 00:06:04.209 --> 00:06:08.629 people on our side love their hand counts. Now, we 92 00:06:08.649 --> 00:06:11.709 believe the paper ballots are the official because machines can 93 00:06:11.730 --> 00:06:18.000 screw up. Nonetheless, when properly set up, machines count better 94 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:21.339 than people. So now you hear my engineering school coming 95 00:06:21.399 --> 00:06:27.490 through instead of law school. But that's the gold standard. 96 00:06:27.750 --> 00:06:32.050 And it's very simple. It's a simplistic approach to how 97 00:06:32.089 --> 00:06:37.129 to run elections. And that sounds simple enough. But as 98 00:06:37.490 --> 00:06:39.930 Don Palmer here at Heritage will tell you, who has 99 00:06:40.209 --> 00:06:43.569 literally done almost every job there is to do in 100 00:06:43.649 --> 00:06:50.019 running elections,

they're more complicated than they look. How do 101 00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:54.699 you secure ballots, especially with early voting? What form does 102 00:06:54.759 --> 00:06:58.199 mail-in voting take? How do you do voter identification with 103 00:06:58.279 --> 00:07:01.879 mail-in ballots? Do you mail out the whole voter roll 104 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:07.360 every time, which some states do, which is insane. A 105 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:12.879 simple stat, 2% of Americans move every month, every month. 106 00:07:13.339 --> 00:07:17.939 So in one two-year congressional cycle, that adds up to 48%. Now, 107 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.680 some of those people are moving more than once, so 108 00:07:20.839 --> 00:07:24.290 half of America isn't moving, but some of us are 109 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:27.470 moving two and three times in that time period. Well, 110 00:07:27.509 --> 00:07:30.829 every time you move, when was the last time you 111 00:07:30.889 --> 00:07:34.290 went to your registrar, you were leaving and said, hey, 112 00:07:34.649 --> 00:07:37.759 I'm leaving. take me off the rolls. No, you go 113 00:07:37.779 --> 00:07:39.980 to the new place and you register to vote and 114 00:07:40.019 --> 00:07:42.959 you just sort of assume they're going to let the 115 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:45.399 former place know and take you off the rolls. Well, 116 00:07:45.420 --> 00:07:49.009 that doesn't really happen, at least not all the time 117 00:07:50.009 --> 00:07:52.850 or reliably. And so we have these swollen voter rolls 118 00:07:53.509 --> 00:07:59.250 and unused voter slots can be used for fraud, particularly 119 00:07:59.269 --> 00:08:02.360 in various circumstances. So there's a lot of piece, I'm 120 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:04.660 walking through an example, but there are a lot of 121 00:08:04.740 --> 00:08:08.389 pieces to a well-run election. And even after the fact, 122 00:08:08.589 --> 00:08:12.670 there are things like audits and challenges. What are the standards? 123 00:08:13.930 --> 00:08:17.529 Who can bring them? How do they bring them? And 124 00:08:17.610 --> 00:08:20.769 so forth. And we have engaged in all of those. 125 00:08:20.829 --> 00:08:24.589 Some of those are legislation. Some are actually regulation. In 126 00:08:24.829 --> 00:08:29.009 North Carolina, for example, in Georgia, there's some regulatory level 127 00:08:30.050 --> 00:08:33.470 engagement on our part. So a lot of testimony. a 128 00:08:33.710 --> 00:08:37.789 lot of advocacy on the ground. And we, and we're 129 00:08:37.809 --> 00:08:41.690 going to continue to do this, we always find quality 130 00:08:42.350 --> 00:08:47.879 in-state partners who we can support. So we're not the front, 131 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:51.379 we're the back. And we bring a lot of experience. 132 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:54.860 We bring a lot of air cover, a lot of 133 00:08:54.899 --> 00:09:00.070 media opportunity to do public education. And we engage in 134 00:09:00.129 --> 00:09:04.389 it fast and furious. And at the state level, having 135 00:09:04.409 --> 00:09:09.519 been a state legislator myself, these issues can arise, get drafted, 136 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:13.879 be voted on, and over in days or weeks. It 137 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:18.600 can go very fast, unlike, say, Capitol Hill, which is 138 00:09:18.620 --> 00:09:21.789 the opposite, where you're in for the long slog like 139 00:09:21.850 --> 00:09:25.190 we've been with the Save America Act, which would provide 140 00:09:25.909 --> 00:09:30.629 not only voter ID, photo ID, but citizenship confirmation, which 141 00:09:30.710 --> 00:09:33.789 is critical. The That's been screwed up over the years, 142 00:09:34.350 --> 00:09:38.100 and that is a national concept. Only Washington can fix that. 143 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:42.039 Only Washington can fix that. So we engage on all 144 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:47.539 these issues. Things like the Heritage Scorecard of Good Practices, 145 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:52.169 if you will, are great reference tools for us and 146 00:09:52.230 --> 00:09:55.830 for the whole Right of Center Coalition that we take 147 00:09:55.850 --> 00:10:00.340 an active role in leading so that all of our 148 00:10:00.419 --> 00:10:03.299 friends working in this subject can be as close to 149 00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:08.360 on the same page as possible. I've never seen five 150 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:11.860 and a half years of the conservative movement and beyond 151 00:10:11.899 --> 00:10:16.450 the conservative movement working together as well as we have 152 00:10:17.100 --> 00:10:21.659 in the election reform space. And that's very important because 153 00:10:21.740 --> 00:10:27.039 the left has been doing this for 22 years, since 2004. 154 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:31.389 George Soros funding, and he wasn't the only, there were 155 00:10:31.409 --> 00:10:36.509 three other billionaires in there, and they have been building C4s, C3s, 156 00:10:37.129 --> 00:10:40.950 and funding candidates and causes, whether they be secretaries of 157 00:10:41.029 --> 00:10:45.549 state or Soros prosecutors, as we call them now, I mean, 158 00:10:45.710 --> 00:10:49.000 if you've got an election fraud situation in Fairfax County, Virginia, 159 00:10:50.509 --> 00:10:56.500 with a Soros prosecutor who's responsible for doing the state prosecution, well, 160 00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.100 if it's a Democrat, he probably says it's not that 161 00:10:59.139 --> 00:11:01.159 big a deal and I have bigger things to work on. 162 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:04.639 If it's a Republican, he says, oh, yeah, absolutely, we're 163 00:11:04.659 --> 00:11:09.279 going to defend democracy. We actually want everybody prosecuted in 164 00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:11.759 that situation. We don't want a side or the other. 165 00:11:11.820 --> 00:11:16.509 We want them all prosecuted. And, you know, there's a history. 166 00:11:16.669 --> 00:11:19.190 Human beings are what they are.

There is always going 167 00:11:19.210 --> 00:11:23.429 to be some cheating. But more than that in elections 168 00:11:23.610 --> 00:11:28.350 are errors, sometimes of vast numbers. We just saw yesterday 169 00:11:28.370 --> 00:11:33.389 in New Jersey them admitting something they hate to admit 170 00:11:33.460 --> 00:11:38.000 on the left. They had over 6,000 non-citizens who they 171 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:41.960 registered to vote through what they called a glitch. Well, 172 00:11:42.059 --> 00:11:44.230 one of the things that we have worked hard against 173 00:11:44.379 --> 00:11:49.870 at the Election Transparency Initiative is automatic voter registration. You 174 00:11:49.909 --> 00:11:53.730 and I and every other individual can register to vote themselves. 175 00:11:53.970 --> 00:11:56.350 It has never been easier to register to vote in 176 00:11:56.389 --> 00:11:59.590 American history than it is today. We don't need automatic 177 00:11:59.629 --> 00:12:03.399 voter registration, and it invites exactly the kind of problem 178 00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:09.570 that New Jersey admitted to yesterday. registering over 6,000 non-citizens, 179 00:12:09.750 --> 00:12:12.230 hundreds of whom we already know have voted. 180 00:12:14.230 --> 00:12:18.690 So you mentioned, this is a topic where the state 181 00:12:19.250 --> 00:12:21.110 advocacy part of it is very important. 182 00:12:21.149 --> 00:12:22.009 Very important. 183 00:12:22.049 --> 00:12:26.110 The states really, they administer their own elections. 184 00:12:26.190 --> 00:12:26.350 Right. 185 00:12:26.889 --> 00:12:29.230 And we're so- We want to keep it that way. 186 00:12:29.309 --> 00:12:30.570 And we want to keep it that way. We're so 187 00:12:30.669 --> 00:12:34.409 used to federal policy here at Heritage. We do- work 188 00:12:34.450 --> 00:12:38.580 with states as well. But this is a scenario where 189 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:41.919 that state advocacy is super important. So can you talk about, 190 00:12:41.980 --> 00:12:43.460 you know, some of you already mentioned a few, but 191 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:45.960 some of the wins, some of the things that you're 192 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:47.480 tracking in different states? 193 00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:50.370 So, yeah, so let's talk about some of the history 194 00:12:50.409 --> 00:12:56.269 of success. So for those who don't remember Zuckerbucks, Zuckerbucks 195 00:12:56.330 --> 00:13:00.470 in the 2020 election was over $ 400 million that Mark 196 00:13:00.509 --> 00:13:05.470 Zuckerberg and his wife funneled using nonprofits, so they got 197 00:13:05.549 --> 00:13:10.480 tax deductions to do this, to election offices, and they 198 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:17.220 skewed this to blue areas. And essentially, these offices did 199 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:21.539 voter turnout. So for listeners and viewers who haven't participated 200 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:27.830 in campaigns before, voter turnout is a campaign activity. Yes, 201 00:13:27.909 --> 00:13:30.250 we want people to vote. Of course, we want every 202 00:13:30.289 --> 00:13:36.210 registered voter to vote. But that first decision a voter 203 00:13:36.250 --> 00:13:41.049 makes in an election is whether to vote. That's part 204 00:13:41.110 --> 00:13:45.509 of the decision-making. And then, for whom will I vote 205 00:13:46.330 --> 00:13:50.490 is the second one. And for the government to be 206 00:13:50.529 --> 00:13:54.549 putting its thumb on the scale, and Mark Zuckerberg funded 207 00:13:54.669 --> 00:13:59.730 this all over the country in places like Philadelphia. Well, 208 00:13:59.769 --> 00:14:05.029 if you turn Philadelphia's election office into a get out 209 00:14:05.070 --> 00:14:08.629 the vote operation in a city that votes over three 210 00:14:08.649 --> 00:14:13.169 to one Democrat. That is a Democrat voter turnout operation. 211 00:14:13.830 --> 00:14:15.909 And they spread the money everywhere to make it look 212 00:14:15.929 --> 00:14:20.360 like they were helping everyone in COVID. But there's been 213 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:24.759 very solid research on the amounts of money that went 214 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:28.200 where and what they got used for. You need a 215 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:32.889 sufficient concentration of money to start hiring new people. Philadelphia 216 00:14:32.929 --> 00:14:39.269 is a great example. They spent, Zuckerberg's folks, spent over 217 00:14:39.269 --> 00:14:44.429 $ 6 per voter in that jurisdiction. Other Pennsylvania jurisdictions got 218 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:47.799 some money too that were red jurisdictions. They got around 219 00:14:47.820 --> 00:14:52.659 a dollar a voter. And how about that? What a coincidence. 220 00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:58.100 So the marginal difference was literally worth tens of thousands 221 00:14:58.179 --> 00:15:03.019 of votes just in Philadelphia. Now, repeat this all over 222 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:07.159 the country with this kind of targeted effort. And to 223 00:15:07.220 --> 00:15:11.539 put it in ACC basketball terms, I'm a UVA engineer. 224 00:15:12.049 --> 00:15:16.110 You know, if North Carolina comes to Charlottesville to play 225 00:15:16.230 --> 00:15:19.950 UVA and UVA is paying the refs, what does North 226 00:15:19.990 --> 00:15:22.850 Carolina think the odds are that that's going to be 227 00:15:22.889 --> 00:15:26.710 a fairly called game? Even if it is, the impression 228 00:15:27.149 --> 00:15:29.740 is not there that it is. So here we have 229 00:15:29.789 --> 00:15:33.549 the ref being paid. by the left to go do 230 00:15:33.629 --> 00:15:37.250 its work for them. So the left says, oh, it 231 00:15:37.289 --> 00:15:40.179 was just COVID this, COVID that. No, it was and 232 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:45.039 was intended to alter the outcome of the election, and 233 00:15:45.259 --> 00:15:50.500 it did. Then comes ETI and others, and we have 234 00:15:50.539 --> 00:15:54.870 worked very hard to help eliminate

Zuckerbucks, made it illegal 235 00:15:55.190 --> 00:15:59.490 in two-thirds of the states. Well, we haven't reached two-thirds yet. 236 00:15:59.590 --> 00:16:04.139 We're close to two-thirds. But over 28 at the last count, 237 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:07.240 and I think we added a couple since then. So 238 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:10.929 we're in a very good place. And we've done some 239 00:16:10.970 --> 00:16:14.409 of this on a bipartisan basis in places like Wisconsin 240 00:16:15.029 --> 00:16:17.990 or Pennsylvania. Actually, Wisconsin, the governor vetoed it, and we 241 00:16:18.029 --> 00:16:21.740 got it by referendum, as we did in Louisiana. But 242 00:16:21.769 --> 00:16:27.100 in Pennsylvania, a Democrat governor signed it. In South Carolina, 243 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:33.110 Democrats and Republicans supported this. In Virginia, it had bipartisan support. 244 00:16:33.169 --> 00:16:36.850 So a lot of these common sense things really are 245 00:16:36.950 --> 00:16:40.669 only partisan because of who advances them. And there's a 246 00:16:40.769 --> 00:16:44.200 bit of the, at the federal level, the orange man 247 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:47.799 bad syndrome. If Trump says it, it must not be 248 00:16:47.860 --> 00:16:50.460 true to the left. And the fact of the matter 249 00:16:50.620 --> 00:16:54.440 is that a lot of the concerns he raises have 250 00:16:54.539 --> 00:16:59.220 very legitimate foundations. And we drill down on those. And 251 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:01.100 we try to fix them. And we've had a lot 252 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:04.319 of success over the years working state by state, issue 253 00:17:04.339 --> 00:17:08.630 by issue to do that. And I've been very pleased, 254 00:17:08.750 --> 00:17:12.650 just as a conservative, to see the right hang in 255 00:17:12.690 --> 00:17:17.029 there after 2024. I was a little worried President Trump 256 00:17:17.049 --> 00:17:20.190 would win again and everybody would say, oh, see, we 257 00:17:20.210 --> 00:17:23.710 fixed this problem. No, sir. We have a long way 258 00:17:23.730 --> 00:17:27.500 to go. But we have a lot of opportunities. You know, California. 259 00:17:28.259 --> 00:17:31.940 this year, has a voter ID referendum. Who could have 260 00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:35.069 thought we'd make progress in California? But we have a 261 00:17:35.109 --> 00:17:37.910 chance to do that this year. And you can bet 262 00:17:38.029 --> 00:17:41.230 that in the public debate, we will be engaged there 263 00:17:41.750 --> 00:17:44.759 as we have in voter ID referenda in a dozen 264 00:17:44.819 --> 00:17:46.539 other states over the last five years. 265 00:17:48.440 --> 00:17:50.500 What are you really excited about moving forward? 266 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:54.339 Well, I will say the California opportunity is one thing 267 00:17:54.380 --> 00:17:57.440 I'm really excited about. I mean, It is so hard 268 00:17:57.480 --> 00:18:01.130 to find ways to make progress in California, and yet 269

00:18:01.410 --> 00:18:04.170 here we have one in front of us, the referendum process. 270 00:18:04.650 --> 00:18:08.849 I'm from Virginia. We don't have a referendum initiative in referendum. 271 00:18:09.430 --> 00:18:12.019 We have referendum, but it comes from the General Assembly. 272 00:18:12.619 --> 00:18:16.559 This bypasses their General Assembly and has been put on 273 00:18:16.579 --> 00:18:19.859 the ballot, like other things before it, that have been 274 00:18:19.940 --> 00:18:25.210 quite successful, frankly. And They didn't make the mistake that 275 00:18:25.269 --> 00:18:28.230 sometimes happens and has happened in other states where they 276 00:18:28.250 --> 00:18:34.190 put four or five different things in one resolution. And 277 00:18:34.329 --> 00:18:37.309 so if you're opposing that resolution, you just pick the 278 00:18:37.369 --> 00:18:41.509 least popular one and you run against that. Here, this 279 00:18:41.589 --> 00:18:46.339 is just voter ID to vote, and that has over 280 00:18:46.339 --> 00:18:52.240 70% support from Democrats. That, according to CNN, those radical right-wingers, 281 00:18:53.230 --> 00:18:59.470 And so this is a well-based issue. And frankly, it 282 00:19:00.869 --> 00:19:05.220 shouldn't be left or right. And among regular people, it isn't. 283 00:19:06.119 --> 00:19:11.160 So I'm excited about California. I am hopeful at the 284 00:19:11.220 --> 00:19:16.660 federal level that this upcoming reconciliation effort will see at 285 00:19:16.700 --> 00:19:23.789 least some progress on either citizenship confirmation or voter ID 286 00:19:24.450 --> 00:19:27.349 at the federal level. I'm most interested at the federal 287 00:19:27.369 --> 00:19:31.960 level in the citizenship confirmation because it is something that 288 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:37.299 the federal government is absolutely critical to being able to 289 00:19:37.619 --> 00:19:44.190 fix after decades of badly written federal laws, a couple 290 00:19:44.230 --> 00:19:49.410 of bad Supreme Court and federal court decisions that leave 291 00:19:49.430 --> 00:19:53.680 state in a difficult position. Yes, it's illegal for non-citizens 292 00:19:53.740 --> 00:19:56.269 to vote, but we have no way to enforce it. 293 00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:00.049 So it's not particularly relevant. And I should point out, 294 00:20:01.009 --> 00:20:03.210 you know, in 21 and 22, we spent a lot 295 00:20:03.250 --> 00:20:07.190 of time and effort fighting the Democrats, H.R. 1, effort 296 00:20:07.230 --> 00:20:11.470 where they tried to do a complete Washington takeover of elections. 297 00:20:11.690 --> 00:20:13.809 You and I were talking about the states running them. 298 00:20:14.230 --> 00:20:16.670 They were going to dictate an enormous amount of how 299 00:20:16.710 --> 00:20:18.769 this worked. One of the things they were going to 300 00:20:18.809 --> 00:20:25.180 do is mandate automatic voter registration to dump all adults, 301 00:20:26.099 --> 00:20:31.079

note I don't say citizens, adults in all state databases 302 00:20:31.579 --> 00:20:38.390 onto their voter rolls and If you were not a 303 00:20:38.430 --> 00:20:43.390 citizen and you voted while being dumped onto the voter 304 00:20:43.410 --> 00:20:47.170 rolls this way, there'd be no punishment because they essentially 305 00:20:47.210 --> 00:20:50.730 would deem it not your fault. So they were legalizing 306 00:20:50.829 --> 00:20:57.009 non-citizens voting. That was written into their bill. And then 307 00:20:57.049 --> 00:21:03.400 they created a new crime, very generically worded, which is 308 00:21:03.460 --> 00:21:06.470 not how you're supposed to word criminal statutes. supposed to 309 00:21:06.509 --> 00:21:11.210 be specific, that said, you know, if you interfere with 310 00:21:11.289 --> 00:21:16.329 somebody's ability or their efforts to be a voter, you 311 00:21:16.369 --> 00:21:21.690 could be a federal felon. Well, in the hands of, say, Biden, 312 00:21:21.720 --> 00:21:26.480 Soros prosecutors that peopled the Justice Department, it'd be easy 313 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:29.599 to see what this might be used for. If you 314 00:21:29.640 --> 00:21:31.359 work at a DMV and somebody shows up at the 315 00:21:31.380 --> 00:21:35.349 desk and you know they sign up for a that 316 00:21:35.410 --> 00:21:38.150 they're automatically dumped into the voter registration file, but they 317 00:21:38.190 --> 00:21:43.089 can't speak English. Well, that's a good clue. They're not 318 00:21:43.210 --> 00:21:46.650 a citizen and not legally eligible to vote. Well, that 319 00:21:46.779 --> 00:21:50.759 criminal law was intended to intimidate that person behind the 320 00:21:50.819 --> 00:21:54.099 counter at the DMV to say, you know, it's just 321 00:21:54.200 --> 00:21:59.240 one person and it's not worth me risking making myself 322 00:21:59.299 --> 00:22:03.019 a target for the Department of Justice. It was pure intimidation. 323 00:22:03.769 --> 00:22:10.410 So they were effectively legalizing non-citizens voting and dumping millions 324 00:22:10.710 --> 00:22:15.829 of them, millions, folks, onto the voter rolls of states 325 00:22:15.869 --> 00:22:19.609 across the country. That was their goal. So, you know, remember, 326 00:22:19.710 --> 00:22:24.390 they wrote it into a bill in 2021 and 2022. 327 00:22:24.390 --> 00:22:28.420 We fought that. That was a very close call, very 328 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:31.700 close call. And it really hinged on keeping the filibuster. 329 00:22:32.299 --> 00:22:35.299 Then the Democrats kept it. Now you're seeing the Republican 330 00:22:35.339 --> 00:22:38.339 Senate keep it. And there's a lot of talk about 331 00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:44.569 how long it'll last and if it won't, should Republicans 332 00:22:44.609 --> 00:22:47.230 get rid of it now, etc. But they've held on 333 00:22:47.269 --> 00:22:52.490 to it and it's a defense for the minority. And 334 00:22:52.509 --> 00:22:55.250 it helped us in 2021

and 2022. And then at 335 00:22:56.410 --> 00:22:58.559 the same time and in parallel, we were working in 336 00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:02.740 the states and Now we're on the positive side at 337 00:23:02.789 --> 00:23:05.269 the federal level with the Save America Act, and we're 338 00:23:05.309 --> 00:23:06.450 still working in the states. 339 00:23:07.990 --> 00:23:09.509 For folks who want to learn more about the Election 340 00:23:09.549 --> 00:23:11.650 Transparency Initiative, where should they go? 341 00:23:12.250 --> 00:23:14.869 Well, I talk about this a lot on the Free 342 00:23:14.910 --> 00:23:19.069 Bird Twitter, at Ken Cuccinelli, and we have a special 343 00:23:19.130 --> 00:23:23.430 website set up for it, electiontransparency.org, and we'd love people 344 00:23:23.470 --> 00:23:25.970 to keep up with what we're doing. Like I said, 345 00:23:26.009 --> 00:23:29.119 there's a lot of little things always going on, whether 346 00:23:29.170 --> 00:23:34.779 it's rank choice voting, Referendum in Alaska or we're trying 347 00:23:34.819 --> 00:23:38.990 to fight it in the legislature in Ohio. It just 348 00:23:39.049 --> 00:23:42.150 keeps coming, keeps coming, keeps coming. And part of that 349 00:23:42.210 --> 00:23:48.450 is because technology changes. So things can alter. Although I 350 00:23:48.490 --> 00:23:51.160 would argue that if we go back to the KISS principle, 351 00:23:51.640 --> 00:23:55.819 we can actually have less change because it'll be the 352 00:23:55.859 --> 00:24:00.470 same thing year after year. One other benefit. We also 353 00:24:01.230 --> 00:24:05.869 work to shorten election periods. We have 45 days in Virginia. 354 00:24:05.990 --> 00:24:09.089 Nobody needs 45 days. And it's very hard to secure 355 00:24:09.170 --> 00:24:12.269 ballot boxes and everything else and to have volunteers who 356 00:24:12.289 --> 00:24:15.170 can observe and make sure everybody's obeying the law for 357 00:24:15.170 --> 00:24:18.930 45 days. Minnesota's even longer, 46. They have the longest. 358 00:24:20.119 --> 00:24:23.859 So we deal with issues like that all the time. 359 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:26.940 And you can see and read about some of those 360 00:24:27.019 --> 00:24:31.150 at electiontransparency.org and Like I said, as they pop up quickly, 361 00:24:31.619 --> 00:24:35.279 we hit them on Twitter, we hit them on every 362 00:24:35.339 --> 00:24:37.839 form of media we can, and I appreciate the chance 363 00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:39.279 to be able to introduce it to folks. 364 00:24:39.559 --> 00:24:40.920 Well, it's a pleasure to have you here. Thank you 365 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:42.920 for the work that you do. Ken Cuccinelli, thank you. 366 00:24:43.319 --> 00:24:44.670 Glad to do it. Thanks for having me. 367 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:47.519 Thank you to Ken Cuccinelli and Mark Guiney for that 368 00:24:47.880 --> 00:24:52.140 absolutely fascinating conversation. And as always, thank you to you 369 00:24:52.599 --> 00:24:55.180 for tuning in to Heritage Explains. Feel free to drop 370 00:24:55.200 --> 00:25:00.069 your thoughts, questions, and or suggestions at HeritageExplains at Heritage.org. 371 00:25:00.529 --> 00:25:02.930 Until next time, this has been Heritage Explains.