Joe Biden's secret voter plan

[Geee]

Washington Examiner

 

JOE BIDEN'S SECRET VOTER PLAN. It wasn't terribly big news on March 7, 2021. President Joe Biden, then less than two months in office, signed an executive order "promoting voting rights," in the words of the Washington Post, to "make voting easier," in the words of the New York Times. Both papers played the story as a modest Democratic measure to push back against Republican efforts to "roll back voting access," as the Washington Post put it, and to counter former President Donald Trump's "months-long assault on the voting process," as the New York Times said.

Executive Order 14019 directed what is known as an "all of government" initiative, meaning Biden ordered all federal agencies to be involved, to increase voter registration among groups that have historically been part of the Democratic coalition. "Black voters and other voters of color have faced discriminatory policies and other obstacles that disproportionately affect their communities," the order said. "These voters remain more likely to face long lines at the polls and are disproportionately burdened by voter identification laws and limited opportunities to vote by mail."

 

It was standard Democratic boilerplate — and mostly false, at that. Democrats have long pushed the "voter suppression" story even as data showed it was a myth. But March 2021 was the month in which the Georgia legislature, controlled by Republicans, was debating a new voting law, and Biden and other Democrats were making hysterical, over-the-top pronouncements about "Jim Crow 2.0." Maybe they believed it. Maybe they didn't. The goal was to pass two bills that were at the top of the Democratic agenda in Washington: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Together the bills, if passed and signed into law, would nationalize elections and remake voting laws on terms favorable to the Democratic Party. But Democrats, barely in control of the Senate, could not pass such a baldly partisan bill without some Republican support — and there was none of that.

So the executive order would have to do. To send home the message of "voting rights," and to give press coverage a historic civil-rights setting, Biden rolled out the order on the anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" in a taped message to be played at the Martin and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast in Selma, Alabama.

But the order itself, according to media coverage, didn't do much. "This executive order is pretty limited in scope," reported CNN. "The executive order is relatively limited in scope," the New York Times said. "It calls upon officials at federal agencies to study and potentially expand access to voter registration materials, especially for those with disabilities, incarcerated people and other historically underserved groups. It also orders a modernization of the federally run Vote.gov website to ensure that it provides the most up-to-date information about voting and elections. But the order does not directly address efforts by many Republican-led state legislatures to restrict voting, including measures that would roll back the mail voting established in many states during the pandemic."

It all sounded like a partisan but relatively weak move. But there were still questions: Did we know the whole story? What would Executive Order 14019 actually do? Yes, the order was filled with platitudes, but what concrete actions would result? Republicans had reason to be suspicious, in part because the voting measure fit into a pattern: Democrats, frustrated by their inability to pass top priorities in Congress, turned to executive authority to do as much as they could without the bothersome process of legislating.

[Valin]

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Most importantly, the Justice Department refused to turn over its strategic plan. None of it. This is what the chief of the Freedom of Information branch of the Civil Rights Division told the foundation:

After review of the Civil Rights Division documents responsive to your request, the Division has identified (15) pages of material representing the STRATEGIC PLAN for the Implementation of Executive Order 14019, Promoting Access to Voting. I have determined that these materials are to be withheld in full pursuant to Exemption 5 of the Freedom of Information Act, 551(b)(5), which pertains to certain inter- and intra-agency records protected by civil discovery privileges, in this instance the deliberative process and presidential communications privileges.

To withhold the plan, the Justice Department relied on what has long been called the most abused exemption — Exemption 5, also known as (b)(5) — of the Freedom of Information Act. "This incredibly large cutout is often called the 'withhold it because you want to' exemption," wrote journalist and FOIA advocate Nate Jones in 2014. "According to stats compiled by the Associated Press, (b)(5) use is at an all-time high." Even though later reform reduced its use a little, Exemption 5 is still an indispensable tool for administrations seeking to hide what they are doing.

1. It does cause me to ask What Are They Hiding?

2. "pertains to certain inter- and intra-agency records protected by civil discovery privileges, in this instance the deliberative process and presidential communications privileges." I have a Rule/Guideline, Never say/write anything you would not want people to know.