At the end of last month, the House voted on the Presidential Election Reform Act (HR 8873). This bill would protect American elections from the types of maneuverings that threatened our electoral process two years ago.
Changes in the law would make it more difficult for state legislators to overrule election results and it also clarifies that the vice president plays only a ceremonial and administrative role in counting electoral votes.
Sounds reasonable, right?
We should codify procedures so that another January 6, 2021 insurrection and attack on our Capital does not happen and taint our long-held belief in the peaceful transfer of power.
Every Democrat backed the legislation, with only nine Republicans voting with them. All of those nine Republicans are either retiring or lost their party’s nomination to a pro-MAGA challenger. These nine GOP members of Congress have publicly acknowledged that evidence has proven to them that Biden fairly won the 2020 election.
This group of nine was seen as the few within the GOP willing to stand up and fight for basic democratic norms. But last week’s vote on HR 8873 confirms that electing any Republican, even those who are not fully indoctrinated in pro-MAGA thinking, risks placing American democracy at risk. Whatever rational members of the GOP remain are a vanishing group, spurned by their fellow Republicans.
Many of us come from multigenerational Republican roots. Our parents and grandparents championed honesty, fiscal and personal responsibility, respect for education and science, belief in a hard day’s work, a desire to guide children into a better life, and a reverence for our democratic system of government. They would be recoiling now to see what their Republican party has morphed into. It’s sad and disturbing.
We recognize that there may be real policy differences among voters on issues like reproductive rights and immigration that could justify a vote for a Republican candidate this fall. There will be time later to vigorously debate important policy differences but only if we unite NOW to preserve our rule of law.
If one cares about democracy, free elections, and that the will of the American voter is respected in 2024, the choice facing voters this election is obvious: a vote for any Republican candidate who does not support the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power, such as those embodied in HR 8873, cannot be defended. They need to be defeated. It’s time to put country over party.
Check your voter status at mvp.sos.ga.gov. Early voting begins October 17. Make a plan to VOTE. No excuses. The time is NOW. Our democracy is at stake.
R. Pandina, S. Stewart B., Hamilton D. Norton, Kimberly Cowern, Greensboro