The SAVE America Act, a bill to require voter ID and proof of citizenship for voter registration passed narrowly in the U. S. House on February 12. It did not take long for Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to be deployed to Arizona to promote the bill and to respond to criticism from various Democrat politicians, including Representative Greg Stranton, of Congressional District 4.
In a speech during her visit to Arizona, Secretary Noem called the SAVE America Act an opportunity “to show that we’re serious about securing our elections.” She went on to state that a recent Gallop Poll indicates that Americans favor requiring photo ID to vote by 84% and proof of citizenship to register by 83%. She also quoted a Pew Research poll that shows 95% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats agree that photo ID should be a requirement at the polling place.
AZ PBS broadcast her full remarks, which may be seen HERE.
The future of the SAVE America Act is uncertain in the Senate, where a filibuster would have to be overcome. However, the Act recently gained a boost when Senator Susan Collins of Maine expressed her support. In a recent, exclusive interview with The Maine Wire she stated,
“I support the version of the SAVE America Act that recently passed the House. The law is clear that in this country only American citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections. In addition, having people provide an ID at the polls, just as they have to do before boarding an airplane, checking into a hotel, or buying an alcoholic beverage, is a simple reform that will improve the security of our federal elections and will help give people more confidence in the results. I opposed a previous version of this bill that would have required people to prove their citizenship every single time they cast a ballot. Requiring voters to produce passports or birth certificates on election day — as opposed to just a state-issued ID — would have placed an unnecessary burden on the voters. That provision is no longer in the bill and dropping this requirement was key to getting my support.”
Whenever a sensitive issue is discussed, it is easy to lose perspective. To maintain perspective, it should be noted that worldwide the notion that non-citizens can enter a country and vote in their elections is almost universally unheard of. The few that do allow non-citizens to vote, allow it only for local elections. With very few exceptions, eligibility to vote for national officers in the vast majority of countries is reserved only for citizens. The United States would be joining that vast number of nations if it were to enact the SAVE America Act.
Another point that would be healthy to keep in perspective is that the issue here is not whether non-citizens should be allowed to register to vote. They clearly are not under current federal law. The issue is whether that federal law should be enforced.
The federal government is not the only one involved in this issue. Several states are in the process of enacting legislation to require proof of citizenship for registering to vote. Arizona is one of those states. We have one bill in each chamber, which are very similar to each other. They are both Concurrent Resolution bills, which means that if they clear both chambers, they will go to the voters for an up or down vote in the next general election. In other words, they will not go through Hobbs’ office, where they woould receive a certain veto.
The House version, HCR2001, has recently cleared the House by a vote of 32-27, along party lines. The Senate version, SCR1001, had a similar fate in the Senate, where it passed 17-12, also along party lines.
If any of these measures, federal or state, makes it through the legislative process, they will most likely face a long legal battle.
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