House Republicans are sending dozens of trained election observers across the nation in an effort to ensure election integrity ahead of the Nov. 8 midterms.
At the same time, GOP leaders sent letters to federal and state officials urging them to be watchful for breaches of protocol or any polling irregularities.
Today RM @RodneyDavis sent letters to all 50 states, & 5 territories conducting federal elections, alerting them the House will again deploy congressional election observers during the midterm election.
Learn more about this election integrity program ⬇️https://t.co/O4ruG2Cvgr
— House Admin. Committee GOP (@HouseAdmnGOP) October 21, 2022
President Joe Biden issued an executive order for the federal government to expand voter registration — clearly with the November midterms in mind. Part of the Republican effort, led by Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), is to investigate how agencies are carrying out the White House order.
Davis, the senior GOP member of the House Administration Committee, also oversees the training and assignment of congressional staff under House authority.
The diligent work by Republicans, Davis related to a state election head, means that a candidate with questions about the counting of their results may take the issue to Congress.
The committee, Davis told Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, is dedicated to ensuring “all lawful ballots in congressional races are counted fairly, accurately, and according to law.”
The congressman further declared that the House staffers have no formal or advocacy role, but exist “exclusively as observers.”
Even as Democrats criticize the effort by national Republicans, Davis said emphatically that the observers from Congress may not be blocked from voting sites. He noted that the constitutional authority of the House “supersedes state law.”
States are required to give access to the observers to monitor the process, he wrote, even if they have laws concerning the “credentialing, partisan quota, or access requirements” that contradict the House effort.
This year is far from the first time that the House Administration Committee has dispersed observers, and its authority to do so is well-established. The Constitution clearly grants each branch of Congress the power and duty to oversee elections.
The House in turn delegated this authority to the committee.
Democrats and their media allies, however, are already proclaiming that “election deniers” will interfere with the process on the state level. This is without evidence to support their claims, only their unfounded suspicions that democracy is endangered if observers are allowed access.
