VIDEO: Capito to Democrats on Elections Power Grab: States Know What Works Best

Press Release

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, participated in a hearing on S.1, legislation that would federalize state elections, mandate the politicization of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) and allow federal funding of campaigns. During the hearing, Senator Capito offered several amendments to protect West Virginia's authority to continue administering its own elections.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ON BILL'S PROVISION THREATENTING VOTING RIGHTS OF OVERSEAS MILITARY MEMBERS AND THOSE WITH DISABILITIES: "My Secretary of State, Mac Warner…sat in this room and testified that West Virginia had created a pilot study to make sure that our military who were deployed overseas to be able to allow them to e-vote. We've [gotten] a lot of accolades to our state to create the e-voting system and several hundreds of our active military have participated in that way…The state legislature…expanded that right to people with disabilities…And people with disabilities in West Virginia now can join the pilot study and vote by e-voting. This bill eliminates that…We're looking at ways to expand voting and this bill is eliminating voting on [service members] and people with disabilities…that's a problem for me."

*Senator Capito submitted an amendment to strike the provision that would eliminate the use of West Virginia's e-voting system for overseas military members and those with disabilities, and another amendment striking a provision mandating paper ballot use for overseas military members. Both were subsequently adopted by the committee.

ON LACK OF A NEED FOR FEDERALIZED ELECTION OVERHAUL: "If we look at 2020, and the U.S. Census Bureau just came out recently with the statistics as compared to 2016. We had a 67% voter turnout. The highest voter turnout since 1900 in this country. 17 million more people voted than voted in 2016…the turnout in my state…still was the highest since 1960….why are we in search of a problem that doesn't really exist?"

WHY STATES ARE BEST POSITIONED TO ADMINISTER ELECTIONS: "If you look at these statistics. The highest turnout ever, historically. And why is that? We were in the middle of a pandemic when it was predicted that more people were going to have trouble than ever before because they were going to be afraid to go to the polling places, they were going to be afraid to go to the early voting places. And what happened? Our states reacted….in the state of West Virginia, for instance, our primary was moved back a month. That was the state's prerogative to do that and the governor did that, and it ended up we had a good turnout. The states reacted to different way to expand more drop boxes, to expand more voting by mail, to expand more early-voting….the states know what works in their states…they don't need us prescribing from here what's going to work from there. I think then flexibility the states have that we've given them over the years led to this historic vote that we had in 2020. And what a great thing that is. By narrowing that scope and that focus, I think that we are at cross purposes at what supposedly is trying to be accomplished here, which is to get everybody and as many people as possible to vote."

ON DANGEROUS ATTEMPT TO POLITICIZE THE FEC: "It is impossible for me…to believe that if we had a vote before this committee with Chairman Blunt, and we suggested that the FEC should be politicized and a Republican should be in charge, that with a straight face that you could say that was a good idea. There is no way. I think that's one of the most problematic parts of this bill."

ON THE SPIRIT OF THE BILL: "I really think fundamentally we are making changes that I think are narrow-minded, are not for the future, and in the end, disenfranchise that great flexibility and wonderfully expansive brain trust we all have in our state to be able to make those changes and things change and times change, to be able to get the most people to the voting booth in the best time and have the votes accurately counted."

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