Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Legislation to Ban ‘Ripe for Fraud’ Ballot Harvesting

Gabbard
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Penny Starr

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who co-sponsored a bill with Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) that would withhold federal funds from states that allow a third party to collect ballots from voters, said Monday the Project Veritas video investigation into the practice in Minneapolis is “further evidence” Congress should act.

“Project Veritas offers further evidence of the need to ban ballot harvesting,” Gabbard tweeted. “It’s not a partisan issue. It’s been abused to help both R & D candidates, including in North Carolina & California. Please help by telling your congressional rep to pass our bipartisan bill HR8285.”

“Hey, everybody, we’re getting closer and closer to election day now, and it is critical to remember that the strength of our democracy lies in the integrity of our elections, that every one of us has to have faith that our vote will count,” Gabbard said in the video posted earlier this month about her bill.

“But right now, there are still many states in our country that allow for something called ballot harvesting. This is a system that allows for third parties to collect and deliver ballots for other people, potentially large numbers of people. Unfortunately, ballot harvesting has allowed for fraud and abuse to occur by those who could tamper with or discard ballots to try to sway an election for or against a certain candidate or party.”

Gabbard retweeted the video adding a new tweet about Project Veritas.

“Now, our vote is our voice,” Gabbard said. So whether in the midst of a pandemic, as we are now, where mail-in voting is likely to drastically increase, or even in a normal election, no one, no one should get in between a voter and the ballot box,” Gabbard said. 

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