Two of my favorite topics these days have been the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act and the Make Elections Great Again Act. Both represent the kind of election security measures Americans from both parties have been demanding for years, but only one stands a realistic chance of becoming law anytime soon.
The SAVE Act does just two things: requires proof of citizenship to register and a photo ID to vote. These are common-sense reforms that shouldn't be controversial and should have bipartisan support. Yet when this straightforward bill came up for a vote on Wednesday, every single Democrat opposed it.
Not some. Not most. Every single one.
The MEGA Act goes further. It has everything in the SAVE Act but also mandates stronger voter list maintenance, mail-in ballots due by poll closing, auditable paper ballots, and bans on ballot harvesting, ranked-choice voting, and universal mail-in voting. I've previously called the MEGA Act the most important piece of legislation in our lifetimes, and I still believe that. But I’ll take the SAVE Act, which probably has the best shot of the two of making it to Trump’s desk so we can secure our elections.
The Democrats’ unanimous opposition tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.
According to a report from The Hill, the SAVE Act likely would not have reached the Senate floor without the tireless work of Republican Study Committee members, Scott Presler, and grassroots conservatives who refused to let this issue die.
"The American people did not give Republicans a mandate to make excuses. They gave us one to deliver wins, and the SAVE America Act is exactly that,” RSC Chairman August Pfluger said. “Every single Democrat who voted no today proved they would rather let illegal aliens tip the scales in our national elections than protect your vote."
ICYMI: CNN Thinks Black Voters Are ‘Too Dumb’ and Scott Jennings Torched Them for It
You’ve heard Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries use rhetoric like “Jim Crow 2.0” to describe the SAVE Act. But, when you ask them to explain why, they can’t articulate why requiring an ID to vote is voter suppression, yet it’s perfectly fine to require an ID to board a plane, open a bank account, or attend a Democratic National Convention.
Polling consistently shows that most Americans—including a large majority of Democrats—support voter ID requirements, making these numbers extraordinarily bipartisan. The only people who seem to oppose it so aggressively are Democrats in Congress and the Democratic consultant class.
The SAVE Act will now head to the Senate, where, honestly, I think the chances of it getting a vote are slim. But I think it's got a better shot than the MEGA Act. I'd like to believe that Senate Republicans can make something happen to get the SAVE Act to a vote. The SAVE Act will have a hard enough time getting there. I don't see the MEGA Act having a chance at all… not yet anyway.
So I'll take the SAVE Act for now.
Sometimes you have to walk before you can run, and securing proof of citizenship and voter ID would be a major step forward for election integrity.
Related: CNN Asked Jeffries a Simple Question on Voter ID, and His Response Flopped
