Old Dominion News

Ken Cuccinelli, chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, will testify before a joint committee in support of the American Confidence in Elections act on June 7.

"The ACE Act, which features a host of state-based election integrity reforms that Congress can enact at their discretion, preserves this constitutionally prescribed balance by requiring reforms in DC but allowing states to choose. Let me be clear, the ACE Act does not mandate changes to state election laws, and this is an important factor in ETI’s support for the ACE Act," Cuccinelli said in a statement. "We view Congress in a role similar to a state legislature, as it relates to the nation’s capital."

The Election Transparency Initiative (ETI) is a conservative organization dedicated to fighting legislation that weakens election security and overrides state level election laws and regulations. Specifically, they are fighting federal legislation HR1 and HR 4, which “would spell disaster for our Democracy and generations of diluted and disenfranchised American voters who may lack the trust and confidence that voting is even worth it anymore.”

The American Confidence in Elections Act (ACE Act) is a “key Republican election integrity bill” that “continues to address disappointing challenges faced by military and overseas voters and makes the biggest legislative effort in a generation to protect political speech.” The act has three main focuses, which include providing states with the tools needed to secure elections and remove the federal impediments standing in the way of that security, increasing election integrity in DC through Congressional authority and protecting free speech around elections from all parties.

Cuccinelli will testify in front of the joint committee handling the ACE act, including the Committee on House Administration and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability. An ETI press release says that he will emphasize that the “states are primarily responsible for the execution of U.S. elections and that the federal government must make it easier for the states to carry them out,” supporting the goals of the act.

According to the press release, Cuccinelli said of the hearing, “Make no mistake, DC should be the gold standard for fair and honest elections in which every legal vote is cast and counted openly, equally, and with the highest standard of integrity.” Cuccinelli continues “without question DC elections are in profound disarray and have been poorly administered, a stark reality many years in the making. Thankfully, Congress can and should exercise its responsibility over DC to repair its self-inflicted broken system.”