J. Christian Adams to Congress: National Mail Voting is a Folly

Published On: June 02nd, 2020

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – June 2, 2020. Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this coming Wednesday regarding voting rights protections in 2020.

Adams will testify on the topic of “Protecting the Right to Vote During the COVID-19 Pandemic” on Wednesday, June 3 at 10:00am Eastern. This hearing will be accessible via Webex here.

“Vote by mail the wrong way to hold a federal election,” PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said in advance of the hearing. “We should not put the United States Postal Service in charge of the process of deciding the next President. They lose mail and deliver your neighbors packages to you. Millions of ballots that were sent out in the past never came back as valid votes. Voter rolls are not accurate to support mail voting and a mail system would send ballots to places where valid voters no longer live.”

A copy of Adams’ written testimony and exhibits can be found here. An excerpt:

“The United States is not ready for an emergency national vote-by-mail scenario in 2020—and it won’t be. Putting the election into the hands of the United States Postal Service would be folly, a disaster. Vote by mail would disenfranchise people.  It would move the election from transparent places where observers from both parties can monitor the process for fairness to moving it behind closed doors where the vulnerable and powerless are influenced by third parties.”

The Foundation has built a record of promoting election integrity and transparency in recent years, to include:

  • Successfully settling a lawsuit against Allegheny County, PA to address targeted issues within the local voter registration roll;
  • Settling a lawsuit against Harris County, TX to ensure the release of records related to foreign nationals removed from voter registration rolls;
  • Securing court opinions in Texas and Pennsylvania which make clear that voter list maintenance records involving foreign nationals are subject to public inspection;
  • Submitted briefs in COVID-19 mail voting cases in New Mexico and Virginia, detailing voter roll flaws in each state;
  • Demonstrated with the help of federal survey data how 28 million mail ballots went missing since the 2012 Election;
  • Secured a case settlement for a client against Starr County, TX  and others against Wake County, NC which outlines tailored voter list maintenance actions; and
  • Triggered a law enforcement referral between the Texas Secretary of State and Attorney General regarding potentially unlawful get-out-the-vote efforts targeting foreign nationals residing in that state.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation is the nation’s most active public interest law firm dedicated to enforcing the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and ensuring the integrity of American elections—bringing more than a dozen cases to enforce voter list maintenance obligations and inspection rights under federal law in federal courts across the nation in addition to serving as amicus in more than a dozen voting law cases. The Foundation also works with election officials and policymakers to improve the integrity of elections.

Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) public interest law firm dedicated to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections.

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Public Interest Legal Foundation