By Robert Romano

A House-passed bill that would nationalize U.S. elections has been declared dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“Democrats’ H.R. 1 (the Democrat Politician Protection Act) proposes a massive federal takeover of elections. But neither the facts nor the opinions of American voters show any evidence of a crisis or emergency that would make this unprecedented step necessary,” McConnell wrote on Twitter on Jan. 31.

The legislation passed the House 234 to 193 on March 8 in a party-line vote.

According to its description on Congress.gov, “the bill expands voter registration and voting access, makes Election Day a federal holiday, and limits removing voters from voter rolls. The bill provides for states to establish independent, nonpartisan redistricting commissions. The bill also sets forth provisions related to election security, including sharing intelligence information with state election officials, protecting the security of the voter rolls, supporting states in securing their election systems, developing a national strategy to protect the security and integrity of U.S. democratic institutions, establishing in the legislative branch the National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions, and other provisions to improve the cybersecurity of election systems.”

Apparently, the bill’s “need” comes from Russia’s alleged attempt to interfere in the 2016 elections — in the bill’s introduction it states, “in light of the lessons learned from Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election” — even as the Justice Department has repeatedly assured the American people that no election results were compromised when it charged Russian intelligence officers in 2018 with the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta email hacks, and attempted to penetrate a state board of elections website.

On July 13, 2018, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, as he presented the indictment of the Russian intelligence officers, at a press conference stated, “There is no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result.”

In other words, existing failsafes that states have put into place were effective at countering whatever attempts were made. No votes were changed.

Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution generally grants states the power to regulate elections, but does offer an avenue for Congress to “alter” those regulations, stating, “The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations…”

But if the elections were not actually compromised, what regulations need “altering” by Congress? Why does Congress have to nationalize the election system?

In many ways it is fitting that the very first act of the Democratic House, their H.R. 1, is to fully immerse itself in Russia conspiracy theories. They still haven’t come to grips with the outcome of the 2016 election.

Fortunately, McConnell and Senate Republicans are standing up to the House led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and not buying into this fundamentally false premise. Russia did not change any votes in the election. President Trump won the election all on his own and with the support of the American people. He won more states in the Electoral College than Hillary Clinton did. Enough with the temper tantrum already.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.