(FreedomBeacon.com)- House Republicans are concerned about the integrity of the upcoming midterm elections, and they are using the oversight authority they have to ensure everything remains on the “up and up.”
To do so, GOP House members are deploying various trained observers to some of the key races in the U.S. to make sure everything is done above water. They are also writing letters that put state and federal election officials on notice, so they can look for anything suspicious happening at the polls.
Republican Representative Rodney Davis is leading this effort. He’s the leading Republican serving on the Administration Committee in the House.
In addition to deploying the election observers, Davis is investigating how various federal agencies are trying to implement an executive order issued by President Joe Biden that instructed the federal government to expand voter registration.
The Republican from Illinois wrote many letters to local officials, saying that this effort is preserving the right for any candidate who feels that their race was counted incorrectly to contest it before Congress.
On October 20, Davis outlined his plans when he wrote to Frank LaRose, Ohio’s secretary of state:
“As in past elections, the House will use this legal authority to credential and deploy trained congressional staffers to serve as official House election observers in close, or particularly cumbersome congressional elections, in the coming weeks. This allows us to prepare for the possibility that a candidate could later contest the race in the House of Representatives.
“The Committee takes seriously its responsibility regarding federal elections, and we are committed to making sure all lawful ballots in congressional races are counted fairly, accurately and according to law.”
Davis says that all of the staffers who’ll be deployed for this effort will have been “trained by experts in election observation.” Further, he said they’ll be told that their role doesn’t include advocacy and isn’t formal in regard to how the election is administered or how the votes are counted. They must work, he said, “exclusively as observers.”
He also wrote that these observers have to be given access to the voting sites to which they are being deployed. As he wrote:
“The House’s constitutional authority in this area supersedes state law, and House observers operate solely under this authority and must be granted access to view the process even if state law credentialing, partisan quota, or access requirements exist to the contrary.”
Having observers deployed in federal elections actually isn’t something new. The Administration Committee in the House is responsible for oversight in federal elections, after all.
Yet, the effort this year is more comprehensive, in large part because of the mess that was the 2020 presidential election. Many Republicans are worried that many of the same problems that election officials faced two years ago are going to still be around during the midterms — and they could be even worse.
That’s why Davis and other Republican members of the House Administration Committee are rolling out this in-depth effort.
