No Federal Funds for Ballot Harvesting Act

the right to vote is a fundamental right of citizens of the United States, as described by the Constitution of the United States;

the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives, which is charged with investigating election irregularities, received reports through its official Election Observer Program for the 2018 general election and the 2020 general election, as well as from other stakeholders, that individuals other than voters themselves were depositing large amounts of absentee ballots at polling places throughout California and other States, a practice colloquially known as “ballot harvesting”;

the practice of ballot harvesting creates significant vulnerabilities in the chain of custody of ballots because individuals collecting ballots are not required to be registered voters and are not required to identify themselves at a voter’s home, and the State does not track how many ballots are harvested in an election;

in North Carolina, a congressional election was invalidated due to fraud associated with ballot harvesting committed by a political operative, and it is unlikely such activity would have been detected were it not for the prohibition against ballot harvesting in the State;

ballot harvesting invites electioneering activity at home and weakens States’ long-standing voter protection procedures, which remain in place at polling locations, creating the possibility of undue influence over voters by political operatives and other bad actors; and

the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed State authority to restrict ballot harvesting (Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, 141 S. Ct. 2321 (2021)).