Democrat Tulsi Gabbard On Project Veritas Videos: ‘Offers Further Evidence Of The Need To Ban Ballot Harvesting’

 Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) said on Monday night that Project Veritas’ recent videos alleging a ballot harvesting scheme in Minneapolis were “further evidence of the need to ban ballot harvesting” in elections to protect “our sacred right to vote.”

Gabbard’s remarks come after the Minneapolis Police Department announced Monday afternoon that it was “looking into” and evaluating “allegations of voter fraud,” following the release of the first set of videos posted by Project Veritas,

“Congress needs to pass our bipartisan bill to ban ballot harvesting so no one can exploit our sacred right to vote,” Gabbard wrote on Twitter, later adding: “Project Veritas offers further evidence of the need to ban ballot harvesting. It’s not a partisan issue. It’s been abused to help both R & D candidates, including in North Carolina & California. Please help by telling your congressional rep to pass our bipartisan bill HR8285.”

In making the remarks on Twitter, Gabbard also shared a video that she made over a week ago where she announced that she introduced a bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives to ban ballot harvesting.

“Hey, everybody, we’re getting closer and closer to election day now, and it is critical to remember that the strength of our democracy lies in the integrity of our elections, that every one of us has to have faith that our vote will count,” Gabbard says as the video begins. “But right now, there are still many states in our country that allow for something called ballot harvesting. This is a system that allows for third parties to collect and deliver ballots for other people, potentially large numbers of people. Unfortunately, ballot harvesting has allowed for fraud and abuse to occur by those who could tamper with or discard ballots to try to sway an election for or against a certain candidate or party.”

“Now, our vote is our voice. So whether in the midst of a pandemic, as we are now, where mail-in voting is likely to drastically increase, or even in a normal election, no one, no one should get in between a voter and the ballot box,” Gabbard continued. “Now, while some states have prohibited vote harvesting or ballot harvesting, many have not, which again allows for abuse from third parties collecting and mishandling ballots. This is something that we’ve actually seen happen in recent elections.”

“Now to protect the integrity of our vote in our elections, I’ve introduced legislation called the Election Fraud Prevention Act with my friend Representative Rodney Davis,” Gabbard concluded. “Our bipartisan bill protects the chain of custody for every one of our ballots by prohibiting funding from going to states that allow this practice of ballot harvesting to occur. This bill will actually encourage states to stop this practice that’s ripe for fraud, and that poses a serious threat to the integrity of our elections. And we urge our leaders in Congress to take up this legislation quickly to support and ensure the integrity of our elections.”