Earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Kristen Clarke to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. Clarke is one of the more controversial individuals that President Joe Biden has nominated to hold high-ranking positions in the Administration as RNLA previously noted here and here. At issue most prominently during today's hearing was Clarke's positions on defunding the police, religious liberty, race, and voting rights.

Last week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a sweeping election reform bill into law that strengthens the state's election system. Unsurprisingly, the law was immediately met with criticism from those on the left including President Joe Biden and woke corporate interests who easily caved to pressure. During his first press conference since becoming president (yes, his first), Joe Biden made the ludicrous assertion that Georgia and other states hoping to enact election reforms make "Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”  

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections held a hearing to discuss recent allegations that the city of Green Bay "improperly allowed a consultant with Democratic ties to play a central role in planning for the November election." Much of the hearing focussed on a report, issued by Wisconsin Spotlight, that laid out the following allegations:

Hundreds of pages of emails and other documents obtained by Wisconsin Spotlight show that grant money from private left leaning groups, funded largely by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, resulted in Democrat activists infiltrating the November presidential election in Wisconsin’s five largest cities.

RNLA is looking forward to hosting Senator Rand Paul this Friday for a special briefing about election integrity. Senator Paul is a champion for free, fair, and honest elections at the state and federal levels. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence is sounding the alarm on H.R. 1. In an op-ed published by The Daily Signal, he explained:

Congress will vote this week on HR 1, the so-called For the People Act, a massive 800-page election overhaul bill that would increase opportunities for election fraud, trample the First Amendment, further erode confidence in our elections, and forever dilute the votes of legally qualified eligible voters. . .

With election reform at the center of the public debate, the Federalist Society held a webinar tonight titled The 2020 Elections: What Worked and What Should Change? 

RNLA’s own Co-Chair Harmeet Dhillon of Dhillon Law Group joined a panel of election law experts to discuss the positives and the negatives of the 2020 election and what reforms are needed in the future to preserve election integrity.

Early voting has officially begun in Georgia to determine who will represent the state in the U.S. Senate. However, concerns still linger from the 2020 general election over the security of Georgia's election system. These concerns are part of a broader pattern of uneasiness about elections across the country. According to a recent Morning Consult survey, 40.6% of the respondents expressed distrust in the U.S. election system. A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey reported that only 24% of Republicans thought the results of the 2020 election were accurate.

Over a month after Election Day, the NY-22 congressional race has yet to be decided. In fact, it is the only remaining House race to be called. Republican Claudia Tenney is currently 12 votes ahead and has urged the certification of the results. However, NY Supreme Court Justice Scott J. DelConte has ordered election officials from 8 counties to recanvass ballots — including some that were previously mishandled by local officials. This is problematic because it sets a precedent for allowing votes to be counted after the statuary period to do so has expired.

Last week, a 4th Circuit panel reversed a District Court decision that struck down North Carolina's voter ID law. The law requires voters to present a valid photo ID to vote in-person or by absentee ballot. As reported by the Washington Post: 

Today, a Pennsylvania state court judge delivered an order defending election integrity. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court's order in Trump v. Boockvar held that the mail ballots of first-time voters who did not provide proof of identity by the statutory deadline could not be counted. The reasoning in the short order was important for the overall integrity of elections and inability of executive branch agencies to overturn election safeguards enacted by the legislature:

[The] Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Board of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline in Section 1308(h) of the Pennsylvania Election Code . . . for certain electors to verify proof of identification, based on Secretary Boockvar's interpretation and application of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision in Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar . . . .