Several Republican-led states have joined forces to try to stop the Biden administration’s taxpayer-funded get-out-the-vote machine to elect Democrats.
But with a little more than three weeks before early voting begins and a contentious ballot collection season gets under way, much of the damage from “Bidenbucks” may already be done.
‘Giant Voter Turnout Machine’
On Tuesday, attorneys general from nine states — Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota — filed a federal lawsuit asking a U.S. district court in Wichita, Kansas, to shut down an executive order that is using federal agencies to register and mobilize left-leaning voters, with the assistance of White House-approved leftist organizations. Among the charges, the complaint alleges the Biden administration has usurped the appropriating power of Congress, which did not grant the executive branch authority to fund the unprecedented GOTV initiative.
“We’re not going to stand by and let the federal government get turned into a giant voter turnout machine for Democrats. We’re going to make sure you follow the law,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told me in an interview this week. “You’ve got an executive branch that is far exceeding the authority that has been given to them. This is something that’s never been done before at the federal level.”
That’s because, as the AGs argue in the federal lawsuit, the executive branch cannot “take money Congress allocated and reuse it for improper purposes.” And they certainly cannot do so without following the laws that establish procedures laid out by Congress. Biden and crew also can’t encroach on the state’s sovereign rights over the administration of elections, including registering voters.
“President Biden has sought to convert the federal bureaucracy into a voter registration organization and to turn every interaction between a federal bureaucrat and a member of the public into a voter registration pitch,” the lawsuit asserts. “That exceeds any authority executive entities have under federal law, violates the Constitution, threatens States’ attempt to regulate voter registration, and thus ultimately undermines the voter registration systems set up by the States.”
In doing so, the states charge, Biden’s Executive Order 14019, signed at the beginning of his term, turns federal agencies into “a voter-registration outfit to register voters for State and local elections as well as federal elections.”
Building on the Pennsylvania Complaint
The lawsuit is similar to litigation by Pennsylvania state lawmakers. The U.S. Supreme Court ended its last term without taking up the challenge, saying it would not consider the appeal until it returns in late September. By that time, early voting will be well underway in many states, and Election Day will be just over a month away.
Led by Pennsylvania State Rep. Dawn Keefer, the lawsuit alleges the executive order violates the state’s constitutional right to establish the time, place, and manner of elections. It further argues that the federalization of voter registration “usurps the state legislature’s powers and violates the state legislators’ federal civil rights under the Electors Clause and the Elections Clause.”
Critics of the executive order call it “Bidenbucks,” a nod to “Zuckbucks,” the hundreds of millions of dollars Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg poured into local elections — particularly the all-important swing states — in the 2020 election. The funds, ostensibly for promoting safe elections during the pandemic, were funneled through far-left organizations with ties to former President Barack Obama and were used in large part to turn out left-leaning voters in Democrat-led cities.
As The Federalist has reported, Bidenbucks is making Zuckbucks look like chump change. In fact, not even Congress knows how much taxpayers are on the hook for; the administration refuses to turn over requested documents about the initiative. We do know that the leftist group Demos drove Biden’s constitutionally suspect executive order.
“Today’s Executive Order is an important step forward on an initiative Demos promoted as a priority for the Biden-Harris administration during the presidential transition and has been a focal point of our work for years,” Demos wrote on Twitter (now X) the day Biden signed it.
‘Overt Political Activities’
The multi-state lawsuit notes several ways Bidenbucks is interfering in the election. For instance, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said it would include “information about registration and voter participation in its direct deposit campaigns for Americans who receive Social Security, Veterans Affairs, and other federal benefit payments.” The Internal Revenue Service encourages its Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication (SPEC) partners to “provide [voter registration] information to taxpayers at their local VITA/TCE sites either during the filing season or throughout the year.”
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, meanwhile, “will communicate with public housing authorities (PHAs) — more than 3000 authorities, managing approximately 1.2 million public housing units.” Friendly letters will provide “useful information to PHAs about permissible ways to inform residents of non-partisan voter registration information and services.”
Any veneer of a “non-partisan” voter registration initiative crumbles under the weight of the facts: Bidenbucks is targeting traditional Democrat voters, and leftist groups are working alongside the federal agencies to turn out the vote. There’s not a conservative group in the mix assisting in the effort, according to The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
Knudsen said Montana’s conservative dominance in the state legislature and the executive branch is keeping Bidenbucks in check. But left-led states — swing states — like Michigan and Pennsylvania — are welcoming the federal-led GOTV effort with open arms.
“When you walk into the Federal Housing Administration, you’re not there to sign up and make sure they got your voter registration, too,” the attorney general said. “This is more of the overt political activities of the Biden administration leading up to an election, just like student loan forgiveness, designed to drive out a vote and try to get [Vice President] Kamala Harris” elected president.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
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