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Malliotakis: My objective was not to overturn the election

January 13, 2021

I want to take this opportunity to respond to Executive Editor Brian Laline’s January 8 Editorial about my votes to object to Arizona and Pennsylvania’s electors for the 2020 Presidential Election.

First, this process is not new. In fact, Democrats have objected to electoral votes of every elected Republican President since 1989.

In 2005, while objecting to electoral votes in President George W. Bush’s election, the Speaker, like me, stated that “this debate is fundamental to our democracy.” She went on to explain that “the right to vote is sacred; that a representative has a duty to represent his or her constituents; and that the rule of law is the hallmark of our nation.”

I agree and I was not alone in this belief; 146 other Republicans, including House GOP leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise cast the same vote representing roughly 70% of Republicans in the House.

The fact of the matter is the divisiveness in American politics today is a major problem. It was exhibited when champions of the defund the police movement hijacked what would have been peaceful protests, when Democrats backed arsonists and looters across America over the summer and when so called “patriots” stormed the capitol in one of the most disgusting displays in recent American history. Americans need to slow down, take a deep breath and remember the first two words of Laline’s January 8 editorial: “Dear Neighbor.”

It is the duty of Congress to oversee the certification of electoral votes and taking the lead of current Speaker of the House in 2005, have robust and respectful debate. It is not our duty to simply serve as rubber stamps.

In the current case, the results from Arizona and Pennsylvania were contested, and as precedent has set, the objective was not to overturn the election. In fact, had the objections of these two states’ passed, President-Elect Joe Biden would still have 275 electoral votes, five votes over the threshold to clinch electoral victory.

As Mr. Laline said, “Any thinking American knows ‘voting irregularities’ exist.” He even went further to say, “Poll workers make mistakes. Yes, dead people sometimes vote. Yes, there are instances of non-citizens making their way into the voting booth. Yes, absentee ballots get mangled, lost or sent to the wrong people.”

Is this something we as Americans should accept?

According to her remarks from 2005, Speaker Pelosi and I would say “no.” Americans, including our editor of the Staten Island Advance, acknowledge that election fraud exists. I reject the thought that we should just accept it as part of the American electoral system. Our elections are the single most sacred thing in our Democratic Republic. We need to erase these irregularities and make the system better.

Twenty-five days before the certification votes, I joined several of my colleagues in penning a letter to Speaker Pelosi requesting there be a bipartisan investigation looking into irregularities and alleged fraud conducted during the 2020 Presidential Election. The Staten Island Advance wrote about this on December 17th, 2020. Our letter and our request for an investigation, to this day, have been ignored.

Instead of working with Republicans, Speaker Pelosi and other Democrats are pushing for much worse. The Speaker even attempted to include, in the COVID-19 relief bill no less, provisions for ballot harvesting, same day registration and prohibiting states from having voter identification laws.

Closer to home, Senator Diane Savino was the only local elected to endorse a law that would require “automatic voter registration.” This law would cause the automatic voter registration of a non-citizen, who applies for a New York driver’s license with a foreign identification.

Isn’t it in all our best interest to give every American, regardless of political affiliation, peace of mind? If not through an investigation, through a robust conversation on the House floor? If Mr. Laline, Speaker Pelosi and myself share concerns on this premise – then we should all be behind the Save Democracy Act.

The Save Democracy Act would enhance federal election integrity by addressing three key areas of concern during the 2020 election to eliminate all doubt in the future. These three areas include securing voter registration by requiring citizenship verification and prohibiting automatic registration by states. It protects ballot casting by prohibiting states from issuing unrequested absentee ballots and halts questionable harvesting tactics. It safeguards ballot tabulation by requiring that at least two representatives of each Presidential campaign observe polls and vote counting operations and prohibits delays or pauses in ballot tabulation once counting has begun. This legislation allows us to demand accuracy, timeliness and excellence in our elections. These three values are the basis of what I seek to deliver to the American people.

Americans need to heal; we need to be respectful of our neighbors and we need to solve problems that ail us all. With this in mind, I will be an original co-sponsor of the Save Democracy Act to once and for all strengthen and secure our elections. We must not find ourselves back in this situation, and we must realize this is more important than party affiliation. Let us come together, wish our president-elect the best and work in a bipartisan fashion to ensure that election security is something that is no longer debated.

(Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis represents Staten Island and part of Brooklyn in the United States House of Representatives.)

Issues:Congress