A.K.A. the Put Elections Officials in Jail Act
Press coverage of this Trump voter-suppression wet dream focuses on barriers to voting. But it will prove a voter registration nightmare for harried elections officials as well.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) calls the SAVE Act “one of the most despicable pieces of legislation I’ve come across in the many years I’ve been a legislator.”
Legal declaration of citizenship under penalty of perjury is already a requirement for voter registration. But providing documentary proof has not been a requirement for 250 years:
- 9% of all eligible voters do not have, or do not have easy access to, documentary proof of citizenship.
- 52% of registered voters do not have an unexpired passport with their current legal name.
- 11% of registered voters do not have access to their birth certificate.
SAVE not only erects that new barrier to voting (it may amount to a poll tax to obtain the necessary documents), but exposes elections officials to criminal penalties, explains the Bipartisan Policy Center:
The SAVE America Act also exposes election officials to heightened legal and personal risk. It establishes criminal penalties for officials who register an applicant who fails to present documentary proof of citizenship, even if that applicant is in fact a U.S. citizen. The bill also authorizes private individuals to sue election officials under the same circumstances.
Together, these provisions could encourage overly cautious behavior (e.g., not accepting applications to register when an election official isn’t familiar with the type of documentation provided) and further strain an election workforce already facing high turnover and burnout.
“Criminal penalties” in the act could mean fines and/or five years in jail for elections officlals for doing their jobs. How are county election officials supposed to authenticate birth certificates they’ve never seen before, some dating back decades, and from 50 different states and U.S. territories? Not to mention elections officials facing lawsuits from MAGA conspiracy zealots. SAVE could dial election registration chaos up to 11.
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune last week told reporters that he did not have the votes to pass the SAVE Act to overcome the Senate filibuster which Republicans have no appetite for eliminating. He nevertheless said he would bring the bill to a vote this week “to put Democrats on the record.” Presumably, for opposing Donald Trump’s insistence that no one vote in this country without first proving their citizenship. Noncitizen voting, like voter impersonation fraud, is virtually nonexistent, but passing new barriers to voting is an itch Republicans can’t help but scratch. Even if it hurts their own voters.
TPM reports:
In order to circumvent the filibuster, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who is sponsoring the bill, Trump and other far-right proponents of the SAVE Act have been calling on Thune to invoke a “talking filibuster,” also known as “standing filibuster,” as a part of their pressure campaign. The method, rarely used in modern times, would force Senate Democrats to continuously hold the Senate floor by debating the bill in question in order to delay and avoid voting on the bill itself.
Such efforts have “almost always failed,” Matt Glassman, senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute, told TPM.
Trump wants the SAVE Act badly enough to lobby for it, so do not count on him not being able to pull a rabbit out of his MAGA hat. Make sure your Republican senators know what a shit show this bill is.