21 Million Voters Can’t Provide Proof Of Citizenship — Making The SAVE Act Even More Necessary
The left-wing Brennan Center for Justice claimed that more than 20 million Americans “lack ready access” to proof of citizenship documents. What’s more, the group asserted that survey data shows nearly 4 million Americans “don’t have these documents at all.”
The Brennan Center apparently relied on the honor system when performing its survey, so it’s not clear that the respondents are even American citizens — as is often the case with the current voter registration system. But even if they are citizens, failing to require proof of citizenship still poses a threat to the integrity of U.S. elections. Yet the left and the propaganda press oppose the SAVE Act because they claim Americans are essentially too lazy to get their citizenship documents in order.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to promote election integrity. Among the provisions is a mandate that prospective voters provide proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. Some examples of acceptable proof of citizenship include a United States passport, a REAL ID that indicates citizenship, a military identification card, and a valid state or federal government-issued identification.
In line with the lawfare that has plagued Trump’s second term already, the left-wing group “ActionLink” said that while Trump’s executive order is “going to be challenged in court,” the SAVE Act “does much of the same thing” and therefore must be opposed.
The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would require in-person voter registration and documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. While it’s already technically illegal for noncitizens to register to vote — and vote — current law is largely toothless. The only thing standing between a noncitizen and voting is a small square box on the federal voter registration form that requires an applicant to attest that he is telling the truth about his citizenship status under penalty of perjury. In other words, the only thing preventing a noncitizen from registering to vote is the honor system.
Just this past October, a Chinese college student who is not a U.S. citizen allegedly cast a vote illegally that was counted in the final total. The 19-year-old registered to vote, having “signed a document identifying himself as a U.S. citizen,” according to The Detroit News. While noncitizen voting is illegal, the student’s vote still counted because ballots are secret. Once a vote is cast and run through a tabulator, it becomes impossible to identify who cast the ballot (and therefore impossible to know which vote to remove). Noncitizens have also voted in Georgia, Ohio, and other states.
According to the Brennan Center, approximately 21.3 million persons living in America of voting age do not “have proof of citizenship readily available” — some say it’s locked away in a family member’s home or a safety deposit box. Of the 21.3 million, 3.8 million supposedly have no proof at all because it’s been “lost, destroyed, or stolen.”
But the Brennan Center’s data only underscores the necessity of the SAVE Act. The Brennan Center has no way of actually knowing whether these 21.3 million self-described “Americans” are actually American. In order to be called “American,” you need to first be a citizen — but if they lack citizenship documents, that means the Brennan Center simply relied on word of mouth — meaning even the survey wasn’t protected from possible noncitizens falsely claiming to be citizens.
That’s exactly why Republicans are trying to pass the SAVE Act.
If passed, it “will stand a better chance of being upheld in court than [Trump’s] executive order,” ActionLink said in a statement. It also means elections would be safeguarded against fraud and foreign election interference.
As such, leftists are now calling on their foot soldiers to urge their representatives to fight the legislation.
“Take action now!” ActionLink says. “Our friends at Nonprofit Vote put together a call to action to tell Congress to vote ‘NO’ on the SAVE Act, which is expected to come up for a vote in the House of Representatives next week.”
ActionLink also spreads the insulting and unsubstantiated claim that a married woman who has taken her husband’s name will have issues registering to vote. This ridiculous claim was parroted by the AZ Mirror.
“The SAVE Act would require birth certificates that match current names, creating hurdles for name-changers” like “married women,” Pinny Sheoran writes. But women are not stupid. As Cleta Mitchell, senior legal fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute, told The Federalist, “When women change their names upon marriage (or divorce) there is a process for changing/updating name from birth certificate or a prior marriage.”
“Millions of women do it every day so they can operate their lives under their married names,” Mitchell told The Federalist.
Meanwhile the Brennan Center says the SAVE Act, if passed, would “become the first voter suppression law enacted by [Congress] in recent memory, and perhaps ever.” Like ActionLink, the Brennan Center says the legislation would “disenfranchise millions of American citizens” who lack immediate access to citizenship documentation.
NBC News, citing “election officials and advocates,” said the act would “still disenfranchise many eligible voters who do not have ready access to these documents,” while NPR said that “obtaining these documents takes time and money” and could reduce voter turnout. But laziness is no excuse for compromising election security. In fact, it’s almost insulting that leftists rest their argument on the claim that Americans are incapable of obtaining basic documentation.
The left likes to pretend that it supports prohibitions on noncitizen voting. Michigan’s Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said as much in a video denouncing the SAVE Act: “They are trying to take something that we all agree on — that only U.S. citizens should vote in U.S. elections — and use that to make it harder for millions of eligible citizens to cast their vote.”
Trump’s executive order and the SAVE Act simply add teeth to current prohibitions on noncitizens voting. If Benson and the rest of the left agree that only U.S. citizens should vote, why all the opposition? Wouldn’t they want to know whether, for example, 21.3 million voting-age people in America are actually citizens and eligible to vote?
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
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