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House Democrats like HR 1 so much they may pass it again, in bite-sized pieces

House Democratic leaders are preparing to pass their signature package of campaign finance, election and ethics law changes for a second time – but this time as a series of rifle shots rather than as one behemoth legislative bomb.

The House majority views the bill, HR 1, as one of the few policymaking efforts that's gained any public relations traction. But with GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell making it clear the legislation is never going to get a moment of airtime in the Senate, the Democrats are looking for another way to draw attention to their signature political messaging effort.


And just maybe, they hope, a critical mass of Republican senators can be persuaded to tell McConnell it makes 2020 campaign sense to embrace a few of the less polarizing provisions that land on their doorstep.

"I am prepared to bring to the floor and pass individual bills to address the reforms included in the For the People Act," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Politico.

The comprehensive package passed in March along pure party lines. The emerging plan is to hold debate this summer on the sections of the bill designed to bolster election security, expand voting rights, nationalize automatic voter registration and change campaign finance rules by, among other things, compelling more transparency by super PACs and requiring more disclosure of campaign spending online.

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Signs in a walkway, including one that reads "Early Voting Site" with an arrow pointing the way

A sign guides people to an early voting location in Raleigh, N,C., on Oct. 24.

Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

It’s Vote Early Day!

Bennett is executive director of Vote Early Day, a nonpartisan effort promoting a civic holiday dedicated to empowering Americans to vote early.

It’s Vote Early Day! Today, thousands of nonprofits, businesses, campus groups, election leaders and other voting enthusiasts are hosting celebrations encouraging Americans to vote early in every corner of the country.

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ballot envelope

An Arizona vote-by-mail ballot from the 2020 election

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Republicans target fine print of voting by mail in key states

Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

In the first installment of this two-part series, I focused on the many efforts that failed to roll back the popular vote-by-mail options to pre-pandemic levels and the GOP effort to disqualify more ballots. Today we focus on the states in the crosshairs.

The litigation targeting mailed-out ballots has evolved since the 2020 and 2022 general elections, when Trump-supporting Republicans lost many federal and statewide contests, and their allies took broad swipes at vote-by-mail programs. Take Arizona, for example, whose current mail voting regime has been in place since 1991, and where 80 percent of its statewide electorate cast mail ballots in 2020’s presidential election.

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Avoid the political hobgoblins

Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."

“Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” (Emerson)

What exactly is a hobgoblin? In Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the mischievous sprite Puck, who creates havoc in the forest, is a hobgoblin. Dobby, the interfering house elf in J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series, is also a hobgoblin.

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