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HUD PUSHES VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVES IN PUBLIC HOUSING UNDER BIDEN’S
EXECUTIVE ORDER
Fred Lucas | The Daily Signal | April 27, 2022 | (Condensed)
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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will engage in
voter registration efforts that in some cases allow mass collection of
voter registration forms by public housing officials, raising concerns
about the potential for voter fraud among other legal issues.
HUD’S VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE COMES AS PART OF THE
“ALL-OF-GOVERNMENT” APPROACH DESCRIBED IN AN EXECUTIVE ORDER FROM
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN.
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HUD sent guidance to executive directors of more than 3,000 public
housing authorities managing about 1.2 million housing units,
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providing advice on “running a PHA–initiated voter registration
drive.”
In government parlance, PHA stands for public housing agency.
Federal housing officials also advised the local agencies on how to
apply to become a “voter registration agency under the National
Voter Registration Act,” and how to set up drop boxes for ballots on
the premises.
THE GUIDANCE FROM HUD TO LOCAL PUBLIC HOUSING AGENCIES MARKS THE FIRST
TIME IN OVER 25 YEARS THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AFFIRMED THAT LOCAL
AGENCIES RECEIVING FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS MAY GET INVOLVED IN VOTER
REGISTRATION, ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL LOW INCOME HOUSING COALITION,
A NONPROFIT PUBLIC HOUSING ADVOCACY GROUP.
TARGETING GOVERNMENT’S DEPENDENTS
HUD’s move creates clear ethical problems, as it would with other
federal benefits, said Stewart Whitson, legal director for the
Foundation for Government Accountability, an ethics watchdog group.
The organization has filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information
Act against the Justice Department, seeking records on how the Biden
administration is implementing the president’s executive order.
“Government offices can offer voter registration forms, but voter
registration drives are different,” Whitson told The Daily Signal,
adding:
Take public housing, for instance. IT IS PRESUMED [THAT] RESIDENTS OF
PUBLIC HOUSING MIGHT DISPROPORTIONATELY VOTE DEMOCRAT. … The
executive order targets people receiving government benefits who might
think their benefits depend on one party in power.
Whitson said he also questions whether the executive branch of the
federal government has the legal and constitutional authority to get
involved unilaterally in elections, WHICH ARE STATE AND LOCAL MATTERS.
“If the federal agencies comply with the executive order, this is
executive branch overreach that would prompt Congress to intervene and
states to sue,” he said.
ENCOURAGING VOTER DRIVES
On Feb. 9, four HUD offices mailed guidance regarding voter
participation to local public housing agencies. The four were the
Office of Public and Indian Housing; the Office of Multifamily Housing
Programs; the Office of Special Needs Programs; and the Office of
HIV/AIDS Housing.
The letter from HUD stated “collaborating with local election
administrators to permit the use of PHA space for voter drop boxes and
voting sites, including for early voting.”
A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE
Previously, officials at many local public housing agencies said they
couldn’t get involved in voter registration BECAUSE THEY ACCEPT
MONEY FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Biden’s executive order and
HUD’s guidance to local authorities mark a significant change,
according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
“For many years, various housing organizations, and specifically
public housing agencies (PHAs), indicated that they cannot participate
in voter registration because they receive federal funding,” the
housing coalition said
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a press release, adding:
UNSCRUPULOUS CHARACTERS HAVE FOUND WAYS TO ABUSE PUBLIC HOUSING FOR
POLITICAL ENDS.
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‘PERMISSIBLE VOTER REGISTRATION ACTIVITY’
The government would consider any coercive or intimidating behavior
from officials of local public housing agencies during voter
registration efforts to be impermissible, the HUD spokesperson said.
“If the individuals you cited engaged in coercive behavior, they
were bad actors,” the HUD spokesperson told The Daily Signal in an
email.
The federal guidance for multifamily public housing stipulates that
partisanship isn’t permissible, and prohibits actions that
“suggest that benefits are in any way tied to a participant’s
voting activity” or give “the appearance that the processes of
voter registration or voting are not voluntary processes.”
Still, the bigger picture of executive branch agencies being involved
in elections raises questions regarding the Hatch Act, said Hans von
Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, parent
organization of The Daily Signal.
Congress passed the Hatch Act in 1939 after officials in President
Franklin Roosevelt’s administration threatened to withhold benefits
and loans to those who didn’t vote Democrat.
“IF AN INDIVIDUAL IS DEALING WITH GOVERNMENT—whether for Social
Security, Medicaid, or veterans benefits—when a government clerk
tells them to register to vote,” von Spakovsky told The Daily
Signal, “the typical reaction for someone getting government
benefits is: ‘I BETTER VOTE FOR THE PARTY IN POWER, OR MY BENEFITS
WILL BE DENIED.’”
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