You have no doubt heard that anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement activists in Minneapolis demanded that drivers show identification before they were “allowed” to proceed through the makeshift traffic blockades they erected on city streets last weekend. The agitators stopped all unfamiliar vehicles and entered their license plate numbers into a database to “verify” that none were associated with ICE.
A reporter from local media outlet KARE 11 informed viewers of a “new form of resistance against ICE, another ‘ICE-out’ method, that’s growing and developing.”
“There are these road blockades. This is at least the fourth one in just the one-mile radius I’ve seen,” he said, adding that they issued flyers calling for “10, 100, and 1,000 blockades.”
Beyond the shock that this group, which was quick to brand ICE the gestapo and President Donald Trump a fascist, would establish checkpoints so evocative of the Cold War lies an even deeper irony: The same activists who have so fiercely opposed voter ID requirements at the ballot box demanded IDs from passersby.
Apparently, there are times when identification is necessary. Do not expect Democrats to admit that, though. The Left is rarely, if ever, forced to justify its positions.
But as tensions mount over the SAVE Act, which would require voters to present proof of citizenship when they register to vote, photo IDs at the ballot box, and obligate states to remove noncitizens (and other ineligible individuals) from voter rolls, Americans must demand answers from Democrats. Why do they oppose a bill meant to safeguard election integrity? Why, when the vast majority of countries on the planet, including Venezuela, require citizens to show IDs in order to vote, does America stand alone?
Well, there is only one reason. This legislation would make cheating in elections far more difficult.
The SAVE Act affects Democrats much like kryptonite affects Superman. It diminishes their strength, instills fear, and incites outrage.
When Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) proposed attaching the SAVE Act to the massive funding bill under consideration by the House earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) immediately rejected the idea.
In a post on X, Schumer wrote, “The SAVE Act is nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0. It would disenfranchise millions of Americans. Every single Senate Democrat will vote against any bill that contains it. Speaker Johnson should tell SAVE Act Republicans to stand down or else this shutdown will be on them.”
In a separate statement, Schumer maintained that Democrats must defeat the SAVE Act to “defend free and fair elections.”
The last time the House considered including the SAVE Act in a spending bill, Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA) offered one of the most specious and pathetic justifications to date — one that reduced minorities to a political talking point and amounted to an insult.
In an interview with the Hill, she argued that it costs money to obtain IDs that some voters may not be able to afford.
“The SAVE Act puts barriers on American citizens voting,” she said, “and actually is a modern poll tax.”
McClellan’s remarks should have been shut down immediately. Most states already provide free or reduced-fee identification cards to residents who cannot afford them.
The SAVE Act will not disenfranchise any eligible voters. It will, however, prevent illegal ballots from being cast by those who have already voted, those who are deceased, those who have moved, and those who are not U.S. citizens.
I recall hearing the same objections from former President Joe Biden and most Democratic lawmakers in 2021, when Georgia passed its Election Integrity Act. Yet despite those warnings, voter turnout in the state exploded during the 2022 midterm elections.
Voter ID commands overwhelming support: 76% of black voters, 82% of Latino voters, and 85% of white voters favor it — along with 71% of Democrats.
In elections like 2024, in which Trump’s margin of victory far exceeded the margin of fraud, the matter carries less practical weight. In closer contests, however, such as the 2020 presidential election, even a small amount of fraud in the right states can decisively alter the outcome.
There are legitimate reasons why so many voters continue to question Biden’s victory. The irregularities reported at vote counting centers on election night in battleground states were numerous and striking. More than 1,000 sworn affidavits from poll workers in swing states alleging misconduct during ballot counting were summarily dismissed. Courts declined to hear their claims of impropriety and those raising concerns were called election deniers or conspiracy theorists.
Democrats, Big Tech, weaponized federal agencies, and the legacy media formed an unholy alliance that treated any discussion of fraud in the 2020 election as misinformation or disinformation. Much of this conduct was exposed by the Twitter Files.
Only now — long after Biden’s presidency has ended — are some of those issues beginning to be acknowledged.
Unfortunately, this belated recognition has not translated into meaningful reform among Democrats. For example, many blue state leaders repeatedly resist the Justice Department’s efforts to clean up state voter rolls, leaving in place bloated lists that include deceased voters, duplicate registrations, former residents, and noncitizens.
Citizenship verification, voter ID requirements, and cleaning up voter registration rolls should not be controversial. Every American has a stake in ensuring that only eligible citizens cast ballots. Each time a non-citizen votes, a lawful citizen is disenfranchised.
SANCTUARY CITIES AND THE NEW CONFEDERACY
The Democratic Party’s fierce opposition to even the most basic election-security measures is a flashing red warning sign. A political system that treats transparency and verification as threats is one that has lost confidence in its own legitimacy.
If we don’t have secure elections, we don’t have a country. It really is as simple as that.