Congressman Banks Introduces New Bill to Combat Voter Fraud in Federal Elections

Representative Jim Banks, R-Ind., continues to make waves in the conservative world. Recently elected as the Republican Study Committee Chairman in the U.S House of Representatives, Banks exhibited his willingness to address controversial issues head-on with the introduction of a new bill, titled Restoring Faith in Our Elections Act, intended to combat voter fraud in federal elections.

“The debacle of 2020 should have never happened, and this bill is designed to ensure it never happens again,” Banks wrote in a Facebook post about the bill. “Voters should have full confidence in the democratic process before they go to the polls again in 2022.”

The bill’s features include:

• Modify the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to mandate that Social Security numbers be included on all federal elections’ voter registration information. The legislation mandates that this must be in effect by the 2022 midterm elections.
• Require states to use Social Security to cross-check the identifications of individuals who vote in elections for federal office in the state with the identifications of those registered to vote in the state.
• States must release the match rate in a report to the House Administration Committee, the Senate Rules Committee, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) within seven days of the federal elections.
• The report must identify the number of attempts to use Social Security during the federal election illegitimately.

The beauty of involving the use of Social Security numbers in the process of voter registration, according to Banks, is that the Social Security Administration has one of the most up to date death lists in all of government. By making sure state voter files match the social security database, states could identify and remove deceased voters in a chance to better avoid fraudulent voting.

America has a long history of contested elections and claims – as well as proven instances – of voter fraud. The 2020 federal election is no exception. There were roughly 300 lawsuits filed this year prior to Election Day, according to The Associated Press, dealing with various aspects of voting procedures such as mail-in balloting. And, of course, we have seen dozens more legal actions filed since November 3.

Any attempt to restore public confidence in the voting process at the federal level is not only necessary, but welcome.

Banks, a former Afghanistan war veteran and Indiana state legislator, has served two terms in Congress and was just elected to his third. The Republican Study Committee that Banks will now chair is the largest Republican caucus in the House and is, in his words, “the heart and soul of the conservative movement in the House.”

Photo from Facebook