Sen. Cruz on S1: ‘The Media Has Not Covered Even a Fraction of the Brazen Abuse That is Reflected in This Bill’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today delivered remarks at a press conference with his Republican Senate colleagues criticizing S.1, or ‘The Corrupt Politicians Act,' as a brazen attempt by Democrats to federalize elections. Read Sen. Cruz's opening remarks below.

WATCH: Sen. Cruz Slams Democrats' Corrupt Politicians Act

"The ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' is the single most dangerous piece of legislation pending in the United States Congress. It is a brazen power grab. It is an attempt by Democrats to federalize elections and to ensure that Democrats cannot lose for the next 100 years. It is not about protecting the right to vote. It is about taking away the right to vote from the citizens and giving it instead to the corrupt politicians in Washington. The ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' would strike down virtually every commonsense voter integrity law adopted by the states across the country. Twenty-nine states have adopted voter ID laws, reasonable, commonsense steps to protect the integrity of elections, the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' would repeal all of those voter ID laws.

"Thirty-one states prohibit ballot harvesting; the corrupt practice of paying political operatives to collect other people's ballots that invites voter fraud. What is the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' do? It strikes down every one of those laws and mandates ballot harvesting nationwide. The ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' would automatically register to vote anyone who comes into contact with the government. That means if you go to the DMV, that means if you get an unemployment check, if you get a welfare check, if you go to a public college or university, it automatically registers you to vote. That is intended to and would, in fact, register millions of illegal aliens to vote. Now the Democrats claim that's not their intention at all, except the bill explicitly provides that the millions of illegal aliens who are registered to vote, and the people who register them, shall not be liable for illegally registering to vote. Not only that, many states have reasonable restrictions on felons and criminals voting. The ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' strikes down all of those restrictions and mandates instead that all felons be allowed to vote.

"Beyond that, this bill is welfare for politicians. This bill is designed to give hundreds of millions of dollars to corrupt incumbent politicians to keep them in power. This is not about the right to vote when you have millions of illegal aliens registered to vote when you have felons registered to vote. When you're inviting voter fraud through striking down photo ID laws, through striking down-ballot harvesting laws, what you're doing is stealing the right to vote from legal citizens. This is brazen, and it's cynical. It's worth noting that when Republicans had the White House and both houses of Congress, we didn't try this. We didn't try to rig the system so that our side could never lose an election. This is an abuse of power from the Democrats. I got to say at least so far; the media has not covered even a fraction of the brazen abuse that is reflected in this bill."

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