Along with the long-since abandoned beliefs in “judicial restraint” (Republicans now applaud the most radically activist Supreme Court in the nation’s history) and “fiscal restraint” (Eisenhower was the last Republican president who EVER experienced an annual deficit smaller than the one he inherited), let’s add “federal over-reach” to the discarded set of once-core conservative beliefs.
Masked federal paramilitaries patrolling our streets, despite the objections of state and local officials, dragging American citizens from their cars, entering homes without judicial warrants. Active-duty Marines patrolling our cities. The Secretary of War demanding that the Boy Scouts eliminate one of their Eagle-required badges. Using federal government powers to punish law firms for representing people they don’t like. Federal demands that universities drop course offerings, terminate research, and change admission policies.
The list continues. Denying federal aid to states and localities because they voted for Democrats. Prohibiting states from regulating AI, suing states that try to regulate greenhouse gases, and claiming that the federal government can override state environmental regulations. Such over-reach would have made Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan scream.
And now, elections can be added to the growing list of federal over-reach. The Executive Branch has NO ROLE in elections, yet they have seized election records; demanded the personal information of every person involved with the 2020 election in Fulton County, GA; and demanded that states “find 11,000 votes,” overturn election results, turn over voter lists, and eliminate voters the federal government tells them to.
And now comes the legislation big-government “conservatives” like John Joyce and Scott Perry love, the most blatant federal over-reach yet: the “SAVE America Act.”
First, let’s deal with the silliest argument on this bill’s behalf: “You have to show an ID to board an airplane or [whatever daily activity], so why shouldn’t you show an ID to vote?” To clarify: the SAVE Act isn’t a requirement to show an ID. A driver’s license will get you absolutely nothing if you try to register to vote under the SAVE Act. Even a real ID driver’s license is worthless.
No, you need a passport, which only 51% of Americans have. 6.8 million Pennsylvanians (4th most of any state) don’t have one. A new passport costs $165. [24th Amendment: “The right of citizens … to vote … shall not be denied or abridged … by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.”]
Failing that, you must use a combination of documents to prove your citizenship. A birth certificate – not a copy, a real one with a seal – along with a driver’s license might work, if you haven’t changed your name. If you took your husband’s name, you need an official marriage license showing both names. 2.9 million Pennsylvania women – 5th most of any state – lack this documentation. How many county records offices should you have to contact and how much should you have to spend in order to vote?
This requirement applies to trivial status changes. If you move down the block or change party registration, you must show up, in person, at a voter registration office, with all those documents.
Online, motor voter, or mail-in registration would be eliminated. In the 2022 cycle, only 6% of the 80 million Americans who registered or changed their status did so in person. That’s 75 million more people, acquiring those documents and standing in line at a county office.
Study after study, by groups of every political stripe, have shown that voting by improperly registered people is virtually non-existent. Republicans have been searching for illegally registered voters and improperly cast ballots since at least the George W. Bush administration and haven’t found them.
In case there was any lingering thought that this might be aimed at those millions of “illegal aliens” who supposedly voted for Joe Biden in 2020, here’s the ultimate absurdity of the SAVE Act: all those (non-existent) millions of illegal voters are free to continue stealing elections. THE ACT ONLY APPLIES TO NEW REGISTRANTS. If Republicans actually believed that the 2020 election was stolen by millions of illegal voters, wouldn’t you think they would try to solve that problem? Of course, it isn’t about preventing election fraud; it’s about disenfranchising voters.
But the truly wild thing is, the SAVE Act will undoubtedly have a disproportionate effect on Republican voters. Republican women are twice as likely to have changed their names. Passport holders are overwhelmingly concentrated in blue states. The highest rates of passport ownership are in deep-blue Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, California, New Jersey, and Connecticut; the lowest: deep-red West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky. Rural voters – overwhelmingly Republican – have the longest trip to election offices to make in-person changes. Just like the Iran “excursion” that was going to a quick, easy win, the SAVE Act is going to blow up in Republicans’ faces. Democrats are fighting the Act because, unlike Republicans, they believe we’re better off if people vote.
