Not to register all voters, but to add to the voters rolls in Democrat-heavy districts in must-win swing states.
The Small Business Administration announced in March a voter registration effort in partnership with the state of Michigan. It was the subject of review by its House committee this week.
“The arrangement utilizes SBA staff and resources to register voters, seemingly targeting Democrat-heavy areas such as Dearborn and Detroit. Given the Biden campaign’s focus on Michigan, the timing and location are highly suspect,” Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pennsylvania) wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Examiner.
Michigan's electoral votes, 16, in all, are vital for Biden's re-election. Biden officially won the blue state in 2020 by approximately 154,100 votes out of 5.4 million that were counted.
“The SBA’s mission is to ‘aid, counsel, assist, and protect small business interests.’ The agreement with the Michigan Department of State, however, ‘aims to promote civic engagement and voter registration,’ which is drastically outside the SBA’s scope. This raises the question: Why is the SBA involved in activities unrelated to its mission?” Meuser asked.
The answer isn’t a complex one.
“This administration rules for thee but not for me. It’s lawlessness without question,” Ken Blackwell, the Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Government, said on Washington Watch Wednesday.
The Small Business Committee, of which Meuser is a member, questioned the Small Business Administration on this mission.
It didn’t get many answers.
“During a time when small businesses are struggling, the SBA has decided to focus efforts not on inflation or access to capital, but instead to register voters in a swing state. This is completely unacceptable,” Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), the committee chairman, said in an appearance on NewsMax.
House Rep: There’s fraud among Democrats
Williams said election fraud “runs rampant” in the Democratic Party.
“The SBA is designed to help Main Street America put people to work, keep people at work, get businesses started, all the things that helped build this country, and now they’re being weaponized by Biden to count votes and register people to the Democratic party.
“The Democrats play by their own rules, but we’re not going to let them do it. I forced them to come see us, I put two subpoenas out. If they don’t address the subpoenas we’ll take it even further,” Williams said.
The SBA’s effort is likely a violation of the Hatch Act, passed in 1939 to prevent federal employees from engaging in specific political activities related mostly to campaigns – whether fundraising, distributing information or endorsing candidates.
Not only has Biden ignored a law on the books since the FDR administration, he has also instructed agencies to partner with third-party groups in a massive "get out the vote" effort.
According to records obtained by The Heritage Foundation through the Freedom of Information Act, Demos, a left-wing advocacy group, helped draft Biden's Executive Order 14019 – which states that federal agencies "shall consider ways to expand citizens' opportunities to register to vote and obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process."
Blackwell compared Biden’s use of federal resources to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who along with his wife, Priscilla Chan, contributed more than $400 million to two nonprofits in 2020. It was intended, they said, to help local election officials offset the administration costs of the 2020 election during the pandemic.
“The Zucker Bucks were being used by nonprofits and in local governments in a targeted fashion, and we put a stop to that,” Blackwell said.
Now is appears the SBA, through Biden’s executive order, is engaged in “illegal, inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars for partisan political purposes. This is total rejection of the uniform application of taxpayer dollars,” Blackwell complained.
Red states can fight back
The swing state under the microscope, Michigan, has Democrat control in the offices of governor, secretary of state, attorney general and in both chambers of its legislature.
Blackwell said red states, in spite of Biden’s executive order, can combat similar plans by speaking out with the state office-holders and lawmakers.
“We just need to talk about it and wherever we can take action, take action," he said. "This is putting a thumb on the scale. It’s lawlessness, and it’s destroying an even playing field for voters.”
