Lankford Opposes Democrats’ Federal Election Takeover Bill

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) opposed S. 1, “For the People Act,” today. Lankford has been outspoken since the bill was introduced in January on the negative consequences it would have on Oklahoma’s free and fair elections. The motion to debate the bill failed by a vote of 50-50.  

“Our election system should provide every American with the confidence that their vote is counted and encourage every American to vote,” said Lankford. “Americans support voter ID laws. They do not want publicly funded campaigns and do not support ballot harvesting with third-party collection of ballots. When both the ACLU and the Heritage Foundation oppose a bill, it is clear it does not represent American values. We want reliable election systems that can be verified and checked. We need to build trust in our election system. I strongly opposed S. 1 because it makes cheating easy and verifying elections impossible. It is not the right direction for our nation.”

In May, Lankford sounded the alarm on Democrats’ so-called “For the People Act” as it was being sold to the American people as necessary to protect election integrity, but is actually a massive federal takeover of state elections. Lankford joined Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to introduce the Don’t Weaponize the IRS Act to prevent the IRS from being used as a political weapon against conservative nonprofits. S. 1 would repeal and undermine a Trump Administration rule that prevented the IRS from targeting certain tax-exempt groups based on political beliefs. Lankford and Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) praised a letter from Oklahoma State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax regarding the dangers he sees posed by S.1 to Oklahoma’s free and fair election process. Lankford spoke on the Senate floor for a second time on the announcement that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) planned to bring S.1 to the floor. Lankford also wrote an opinion piece to Oklahomans that Democrats’ federal election takeover bill is not “For the People.”