Op-Ed: Rather the ‘saving’ America, the SAVE Act is about voter suppression
For months, President Trump and his administration have been fixated on one issue. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with ending the war in Iran or with the affordability of groceries and gasoline.
The president’s primary goal this spring and summer has been the passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. Trump is apparently convinced that voter suppression measures will prevent some citizens likely to vote for Democrats from doing so this November. The proposed voter suppression law is intended to stem the tide of a blue wave that could result in Democrats regaining control of at least one chamber of Congress.
Trump is afraid that a Democratic landslide would mark the end of his unchallenged authoritarian rule. Moreover, if Democrats are in the majority and in control of congressional committees, they would immediately begin investigations into Trump’s actions during his second term, and the blatant corruption of his family and members of his inner circle.
For decades, mostly at the state level, a central tenet of Republican politics has been to win elections by making it difficult for opponents to vote. Through enactment of laws that disproportionately burden minority voters – those requiring photo identification, restricting early voting, limiting registration opportunities, and purging voter rolls – Republicans have consistently sought to carve out of the electorate those that don’t support them.
In 2016, North Carolina Republican lawmakers requested data on various voting practices, broken down by race. They then passed laws that restricted voting and registration in many ways that disproportionately affected Black voters, including cutting back on early voting. According to the ACLU, between 2008 and 2012, 70% Black voters voted early in North Carolina. After cuts to early voting, Black turnout in early voting was down by 8.7%, or about 66,000 votes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned this limitation on early voting.
Several states controlled by Republicans have attempted to suppress voting by requiring voter identification at polling places. It is common for states that have enacted these laws to demand forms of ID that are more often carried by white voters than minority ones, like drivers’ and gun licenses. Moreover, student IDs are often not permitted, in order to lower the Democratic advantage in towns with colleges and universities.
Republicans have learned that they can keep unwanted voters from the polls by intentionally causing long lines at voting places favored by Democrats. This is accomplished by limiting the number of voting machines or by excessively challenging voters to slow down voting in certain wards.
The purging of voter registration lists is a flawed process used to remove unwanted voters. The procedure is notorious for deleting valid voters. Purged eligible voters who recently got married or moved show up to vote on Election Day and find that they can’t cast a regular ballot.
Since Trump lost the presidency in 2020, MAGA election denial groups have been challenging voters’ eligibility on a massive scale. The groups pressure officials to investigate large numbers of voters based on unreliable information and conspiracy theories.
The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress took notice of the state-level voter suppression measures. The original SAVE legislation was drafted by the ultraconservative U.S. Rep. Chip Roy from Texas and U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah. While the measure has so far failed to gain traction in the U.S. Senate after being approved in the House, Trump refuses to give up on its passage.
On July 21, House Republicans voted to attach the SAVE America Act to the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2027 fiscal year. This is a last-ditch effort before the midterms to pass unpopular and dangerous voter suppression measures by shoehorning it into unrelated legislation.
How will the Save America Act suppress voting? First, under the bill, voters wouldn’t be able to register to vote with their driver’s license alone because licenses generally do not indicate citizenship. Instead, they would need a harder-to-obtain form of identification, like a U.S. passport or birth certificate.
Then, the proposed law would implement a national voter ID requirement that is more burdensome than current state voter ID laws. It would also severely threaten mail registration and require online registration systems to be overhauled to fit the bill’s requirements. During the Senate floor debate, the president filed a now-included amendment to significantly restrict Americans’ ability to vote by mail.
It also mandates that states conduct frequent voter purges, even those based on faulty data. In addition, every state would be required to submit its voter registration list to the Department of Homeland Security for comparison with the agency’s error-ridden database.
Finally, there is a provision that election workers could go to prison for up to five years if they help to register somebody without the correct documents, even if the registered voter is a citizen.
In March, Trump told a group of Republican lawmakers that passing the law would “guarantee the midterms” for Republicans. The bottom line is that there is no proof of the types of fraud Trump has cited to justify the legislation. The only justification for passing the Act is to prevent eligible Democrats from voting.
Gary Stout is a Washington attorney.