President Donald Trump said it simply in a Truth Social post a few days ago: “THE SAVE AMERICA ACT MUST BE PASSED, NOW.”
He’s right, of course. The SAVE America Act is a crucial piece of election integrity legislation. It would require that states obtain documentary proof of U.S. citizenship before allowing a would-be voter to register, and that registered voters produce a photo ID to verify they are who they say they are when voting.
The fact is, we should have enacted this legislation years ago to fix a problem with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. That bill, also called the “Motor Voter” law, authorized government officials to create a voter registration form that allows an applicant to declare, by checking a box, that they are a United States citizen — but which, crucially, does not require proof of citizenship.
OPINION — WOMEN’S VOICES MATTER: PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT
Now, in the wake of four years of the Biden administration’s open-door policy at the border, which allowed millions of illegal immigrants to enter our country, we need this legislation more than ever.
The critical components of the legislation are enormously popular. They are widely supported across all demographic groups. In a recent poll conducted for Tea Party Patriots Action by McLaughlin & Associates, 84% of survey respondents agreed that “Only United States citizens should be allowed to vote in elections for the American president, senators, and representatives,” with 93% of Republicans, 82% of Independents, and even 76% of Democrats agreeing.
Further, 75% of survey respondents agreed that “Voters should be required to show photo identification when voting, including when casting absentee or mail-in ballots, to verify they are who they claim to be,” with 91% of Republicans, 73% of independents, and 61% of Democrats agreeing.
Some opponents of the legislation claim it would disenfranchise some voters because they don’t have identity documents. Yet the overwhelming majority of survey respondents said they currently possess a valid photo ID “such as a driver’s license, state I.D., or passport” — 96% of Democrats and Republicans agreed, while 94% of independents agreed.
And 84% of Republicans, 66% of independents, and 52% of Democrats agreed that “requiring a photo I.D. to vote is a reasonable requirement that the vast majority of Americans can easily meet.”
The House first passed a version of the bill two years ago, in the 118th Congress, and then passed it again earlier this year.
Yet just getting the Senate to consider the legislation was a herculean task. When it passed the House two years ago, it went nowhere in the Senate; then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wouldn’t even schedule it for a floor debate. So it was no certainty that passing the House again would earn the bill floor time in the Senate this time around.
Senate Democrats would surely use procedural rules to block the bill, and there were even some Senate Republicans whose support couldn’t be counted on.
But Trump, determined to pass the legislation, convinced Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) that the bill was a high-priority legislative goal, and Thune brought it to the floor. For days, and then weeks, senators of both parties from all over the country debated the legislation and the underlying need for it.
And every time a Democratic senator took a stand against the bill, for this reason or that, they were likely taking a stand against the majority of their constituents. The more they talked, the deeper they dug themselves into a hole.
Yet Democrats refused to yield. For weeks, they continued to oppose the legislation on the Senate floor, despite the public’s strong support for its underlying elements.
Ultimately, the Senate had to move on. After more than a month of debate on the legislation, the Senate leadership had to take it off the floor so the Senate could move government funding legislation — because Senate Democrats, in their determination to oppose Trump at every turn, refused to fund the entire Department of Homeland Security despite the risks inherent in causing a partial shutdown of the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and a dozen other agencies, in addition to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
SAVE ACT QUIETLY PUNTED TO SENATE GRAVEYARD AS SOME SUPPORTERS CONCEDE DEFEAT
Let’s be clear: the failure to pass the SAVE America Act in the Senate — and to secure our elections against the possibility that they could be corrupted by unlawful votes cast illegally by noncitizens — is due to the opposition of Senate Democrats.
Trump was right to push for the SAVE America Act when he first promoted it, and he’s right to continue to push for its adoption. We need the SAVE America Act. And we need it now.
Jenny Beth Martin is chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.