Rep. Calvert Offers Amendment to Prohibit Foreign Nationals from Participating in Ballot Harvesting

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) offered an amendment during the Appropriations Committee markup of the fiscal year 2021 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to prohibit foreign nationals from participating in ballot harvesting. The amendment was defeated on a party-line vote.

"The goal of my amendment is to close a loophole in California's ballot harvesting law that could expose our elections to foreign interference," said Rep. Calvert. "I can't imagine any American thinks foreign nationals should have a role handling ballots in our elections. Faith in the integrity of our elections is essential to our democracy. That's why it's so critical for Congress not to wait until this loophole is exploited by bad actors before closing it. Democrats opposition to my amendment is dangerous and hypocritical to the concerns they've voiced for the past four years about foreign interference in our elections."

The amendment offered by Rep. Calvert would deny federal election security grants to any state that fails to certify the state has in effect a law to prohibit foreign nationals (defined as anyone in the United States who is not a citizen or permanent legal resident) from collecting and delivering ballots during an election.

Currently, under California's ballot harvesting law, foreign nationals are permitted to collect an unlimited number of ballots.

Legislation (H.R. 1) approved by House Democrats earlier this Congress would also permit foreign nationals to collect an unlimited number of ballots.