The scale of HR 22's disproportionate impact represents a constitutional crisis: it allows one party to circumvent the structural protections designed to prevent consolidation of power.
The Constitutional Framework
The Constitution does not prohibit one party from controlling government through legitimate elections. Instead, it relies on structural protections to prevent tyranny:
- Regular elections create opportunities for power to shift
- Staggered terms prevent sudden total control
- Federalism distributes power across state and federal levels
- Separation of powers prevents any one branch from dominating
- Individual rights constrain what even a majority can do
These protections assume one critical condition: free and fair elections where all eligible citizens have roughly equal access to the ballot.
How HR 22 Breaks This Foundation
The Scale Creates Structural Advantage
HR 22 would create barriers for 16–36 million more Democratic-leaning voters than Republican-leaning voters. This is not a minor edge—it represents:
- 2–5 times the 2020 popular vote margin (7 million votes)
- 100–1,000 times typical swing state margins (tens of thousands)
- A 5–15 point systematic advantage for one party
This Circumvents Electoral Checks
The Constitution's primary check on power consolidation is regular competitive elections. But when one party can:
- Systematically suppress 16–36 million opposing voters
- Make this suppression appear procedurally neutral ("citizenship verification")
- Entrench this advantage across all federal elections (House, Senate, President)