Under H.R. 4, Bureaucrats at the DOJ Would Have to Approve Annexations.

(Alexandria, VA) – September 20, 2021: Last Month, the U.S. House passed H.R. 4 or The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a bill that would put bureaucrats at the DOJ in total control of our elections. Under this bill, the DOJ would have to approve every single change made to elections. The DOJ previously held this power under Section 5 of The Voting Rights Act and had a history of abusing it. This preclearance power even resulted in millions in sanctions before the Supreme Court ruled Section 5 was unconstitutional.

This week’s DOJ Abuse of Power of the Week focuses on an objection in North, South Carolina. In 2003, the town of North wanted to annex a single residential property. The two people who lived on the property wanted to be annexed, so they could receive city water, cable, and other similar town benefits.

The DOJ rejected this change. The DOJ’s rejection letter reads, “the submitted annexations are residential and will result in the addition of two white persons of voting age to the town.” DOJ officials rejected the annexation because the addition of these two white voters they believed would dilute black voting strength in the town.

 “Under H.R. 4, bureaucrats at the DOJ would have to approve simple annexations into towns,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “As shown in the town of North, DOJ bureaucrats see the addition of any white voters to an area as having a discriminatory impact on the African American voting population. This is an overreach of the federal government that we do not want impacting basic responsibilities and decisions of local governments.”