The GOP’s sweeping new anti-voting bill cleared the U.S. House Wednesday, setting up a high-stakes battle in the Senate.
The House voted 218-213 to pass the SAVE America Act, which experts have said could disenfranchise millions by requiring voters to show documentary proof of citizenship at registration and to provide photo ID when they cast ballots.
Republicans have argued for voter ID broadly, pointing out that there isn’t much to prevent a noncitizen from casting a ballot in a federal election — besides the fact that it’s a felony, easily caught, and would lead to deportation all for the chance to cast one out of hundreds of thousands of votes.
Agreed. The goal is to design a system where you must prove your right to vote rather than be allowed to cast a vote with passive validation after the fact. Folks who can’t prove their right to vote are primarily low-income voters who are presumed to vote Dem.
As this is not the least restrictive means to accomplish the legitimacy of the election, it does not pass constitutional muster (good luck with the current Supreme Court though). I also wonder how this might infringe on the rights of First Nations (literally completely ignorant here) and states right to administer their own elections.
The big group this impacts is married women — in particular it has a name-matching requirement which will block a large fraction of married women from voting. They’re doing this because women have consistently been more likely to vote for Democrats than men:
This makes it very much worthwhile for Americans to ask their Senators to block this legislation by any means necessary.
What they are going to create is a world where women refuse to take their husband’s name. I’m certain the right will be up in arms over that as well. Par for the course for the poster children of unintended consequences.
If their goals were ever what they say they are, there is almost always a better policy that could drive that out come, but every time the right’s solution is “just make them.” And then big fucking Pikachu surprise when that doesn’t work out like they plan.