GOP Rep. Babin Introduces 'You Must Be Alive To Vote Act'
Texas Republican Rep. Brian Babin has proposed the ‘You Must Be Alive To Vote Act’, a bill that is intended to crack down on alleged instances of people using names of the deceased in order to vote.
The goal of the bill is to have states check the Social Security Administration’s death records and purge the deceased from voter rolls.
“The ease with which someone is able to steal the ballot of a deceased person and cast an illegitimate vote should disturb, alarm, and outrage every American citizen, no matter what side of the aisle they sit on,” Babin said, according to a news release from his office.
“To protect our democratic process and Americans’ faith in our elections, we must ensure that deceased individuals are not allowed to remain on state voter rolls.”
There is currently no text of the bill available.
Babin, who is in a solidly Republican district, created the bill in response to President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Numerous affidavits testifying to various types of election fraud have been filed in courts in several swing states. These affidavits constitute evidence of fraud, but those allegations have yet to be proven by those courts.
The legal action remains ongoing.
While Babin’s bill could be aimed at battleground states, the bill would also have a sizeable impact on states with a large population like California and New York if signed into law.
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Babin told One America News that most of the work of purging the voter rolls would fall onto counties, and suggested that it would be a fairly simple process.
“It’s the easiest thing in the world for these local counties to purge their voter list of deceased individuals,” Babin said. “All they have to do is go to the Social Security system and crosscheck against their deceased Social Security recipients on their list and then purge them off of the voter list.”
“My bill would actually penalize these states and these counties from getting any kind of federal money from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Education if they do not do so on an annual basis.”
I’m leading the effort in Congress to put a stop to people illegally casting ballots using the names of the deceased.
My bill, the You Must Be Alive to Vote Act, guarantees this type of voter fraud is never successful.
Without election integrity – our democracy will fail. pic.twitter.com/7iSZQNK1A9
— Brian Babin (@RepBrianBabin) December 4, 2020
Some on social media believed the bill to be unnecessary, as it is already against the law to commit voter fraud.
You realize this is already illegal! We don’t need another Bill! What we need are our Reps to follow the current Laws and go after what’s happening now. Focus your attention there. https://t.co/Ct4HLW2dk5
— Namabear99???? (@ansonsusan99) December 7, 2020
we don’t need more laws, we need to enforce the laws on the books. Anyone doing this should be in jail for 5 years. It is treason and election fraud.
If the GOP would just put their big boy pants on and hold these crooks accountable, then we would not have such silly proposals. https://t.co/FHYjuRQfFK— Lsgartrell (@lsgartrell) December 7, 2020
The criticism of the bill is understandable, especially because the current punishment for those found guilty of voter fraud is usually hefty fines and 5 years in prison.
However, Babin’s proposal would hopefully ease concerns people have about the election process and hold states accountable for how they conduct their elections.
Whether or not you agree with Babin, his intention to maintain and build trust in the institutions surrounding American democracy is something people on both sides of the aisle can get behind.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
