#noncitizen voting

[justinspoliticalcorner]

MAGA is spouting nonsense on the SAVE America Act. Here’s the truth

Influential right-wing figures and GOP lawmakers are pushing misleading claims and obfuscating facts about the measure. 

Matt Cohen at Democracy Docket:

As lawmakers duke it out on the Senate floor over the SAVE America Act, MAGA Republicans and anti-voting activists are working overtime on social media to garner more support for the voter suppression measure. Should the bill clear the U.S. Senate — which isn’t looking likely, given that it doesn’t have the 60 votes needed to clear a Democratic filibuster — it would require people to provide proof of citizenship, like a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote. People would also need to show a government-issued photo ID at the poll to cast a ballot. And there’s an amendment that places restrictions on mail voting — including barring universal mail-in voting. But you wouldn’t know these things if you were only following coverage from the SAVE America Act’s loudest cheerleaders. Instead, influential right-wing figures and GOP lawmakers are pushing misleading claims and obfuscating facts about the measure.  [...]

Rumor: Noncitizens are voting en masse in federal elections

At the heart of the SAVE America Act’s very foundation is the myth that noncitizens are illegally voting en masse. But the facts are that it is illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and when it does happen, it’s incredibly rare. Instead, the GOP has effectively turned a non-issue into a widespread voting panic about a problem that doesn’t exist. And yet, the Trump administration is still trying to push the narrative, even when their own investigations yield extremely few instances of noncitizen voting. In a recent interview, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said that the U.S. Department of Justice’s audit of nearly half the states’ voter rolls only turned up “dozens and dozens” of illegitimate votes. To put that in perspective: 50 illegitimate votes would amount to just 0.000007% of the roughly 680 million votes cast in the last five national elections.

Rumor: People won’t have to reregister to vote

The main provision of the SAVE America Act is the requirement for people to show proof of citizenship — via either a passport or birth certificate, and a valid form of government I.D. — in order to register to vote. Though an earlier version of the bill required voters to show their passport or birth certificate at the pollsevery time they vote, the measure has since been amended so that people only need to do that when they register to vote — or reregister, which is poised to be a huge burden for tens of millions of voters. And anti-voting activists have purposefully obscured this fact.  Reregistering to vote is necessary for anyone who moves. Just over 40 million people have moved each year over the past five years according to recent American Community Survey data. While registered voters will stay registered without having the burden of proving their citizenship, in their campaigning for the SAVE America Act, anti-voting activists and MAGA Republicans are conveniently leaving out details about how many people move each year who will have to reregister — and the obstacles they’ll face to do so should the measure pass. 

Rumor: The SAVE America Act will pay for you to get a new photo ID to vote

Democrats have attacked the SAVE America Act as a modern-day poll tax for the financial burdens it places on the millions of Americans who don’t have the proper proof of citizenship to register to vote, or correct ID to cast a ballot. Passports aren’t cheap: It’s $165 to get a passport and $130 to get it renewed — throw in an extra $60 for expedited delivery.  In order to cast your ballot, though, voters will need to show a government-issued photo ID, which most states don’t require. For voters casting their ballots by mail, they’ll need to provide a copy of their ID along with their ballot.  [...]

Rumor: The SAVE America Act won’t make it harder for certain groups to vote

Among the biggest criticisms of the SAVE America Act is that it’ll establish barriers to the ballot box for numerous groups of voters — married women, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. Anti-voting activists have vociferously argued this isn’t true — to diminishing returns. 

Democracy Docket wrote a solid article debunking MAGA lies about the dangerous SAVE America Act that will imperil voting rights if it passes.

See Also:

MMFA: Right-wing media use the SAVE America Act to undermine the upcoming midterm elections

[juicetrump2]

Trump DOJ Threatens Election Officials Nationwide Over Voter Rolls

The Department of Justice threatened to take legal action over supposed noncitizen voters.

[politalicious]

Report Claims Between 1 and 2.7 Million #NONCITIZENS Could #VOTE in 2024!

Study: 10% to 27% of Non-Citizens Are Illegally Registered to Vote – Just Facts

Based on the latest data and an enhanced version of a stress-tested methodology from a scholarly journal, about 10% to 27% of non-citizen ad

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Texas GOP’s voter intimidation is what GOP wants to do nationwide

On August 20, a little before dawn, 87 year-old Lidia Martinez was abruptly jarred awake by an unexpected knock on her door.

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

On August 20, a little before dawn, 87 year-old Lidia Martinez was abruptly jarred awake by an unexpected knock on her door. The longtime activist who for over 35 years has worked to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in south Texas, cautiously peered out the door. Standing on her doorstep were nine police officers dressed in tactical gear and carrying firearms. After showing her a search warrant, Martinez’s home was searched as she was forced to stand outside in her nightgown in her driveway in full view of her neighbors. Martinez was later questioned for three hours after which the police seized her phone, computer, personal calendar and more.

[...]

These bad faith searches orchestrated by Paxton were predicated on the claim that the people being investigated were registering non-citizens to vote—despite zero evidence presented of wrongdoing. Very alarmingly, if Donald Trump and House GOP have their way, these types of raids would be happening nationwide with federal law enforcement under a GOP President.  That is why GOP House Speaker Johnson is now demanding the proposed SAVE Act be included in any deal to provide funding to keep the government open.

To be clear, federal and state law already makes it a crime for non-citizens to vote. But this new federal legislation would establish criminal penalties for registering an applicant to vote in a federal election who fails to present documentation proving U.S. citizenship.  That means that what we are seeing in Texas is coming attractions of what the GOP wants to do nationally.

Keep in mind despite Texas AG Paxton’s two year investigation, no charges  have been filed against any of the people whose homes were searched.  Indeed, there may never be charges because even Paxton’s basis for the search is BS. In his press release announcing the investigation, the Texas AG presents no evidence of wrongdoing. Instead, Paxton makes baseless claims like these organizations have set up voter registration booths outside state agencies where people could register inside. Paxton’s press release literally includes this question with no answer: “Why would they need a second opportunity to register with a booth outside?” But nowhere in his press release does he even allege any criminal conduct—only questions.

And Paxton—a close ally of convicted felon Trump—showed his bad faith earlier in August on a radio show when he peddled lies about non-citizens voting. Paxton declared, “There’s a reason Joe Biden brought people here illegally. I’m convinced that that’s how they’re going to do it this time, they’re going to use the illegal vote. Why were they brought in, why did he bring in 14 million people?” adding, “He brought them here to vote.”   That is nothing more than the type of BS you hear on Fox News. But now Paxton has weaponized government by targeting people registering those he believes will vote for Democrats. The backlash to Paxton’s actions have been swift. LULAC requested that the Department of  Justice investigate Paxton's office for Voting Rights Act violations. LULAC CEO Juan Proaño and the group's national president, Roman Palomares, summed up well what is really going in their letter to the DOJ: "These actions echo a troubling history of voter suppression and intimidation that has long targeted both Black and Latino communities, particularly in states like Texas, where demographic changes have increasingly shifted the political landscape.”

The Texas GOPs voter intimidation tactics are based on the faux outrage campaign against noncitizen voting.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Trump allies seize on New Jersey registration error to advance anti-voting agenda

Nothing disclosed so far shows an organized voter fraud scheme or an altered election. But, surprising no one, Republicans and Trump officia

Yunior Rivas at Democracy Docket:

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) announced Tuesday that a software failure improperly registered roughly 6,600 people who told the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) they were not U.S. citizens. Nothing disclosed so far shows an organized voter fraud scheme or an altered election. But, surprising no one, Republicans and Trump officials jumped on the error, with the Department of Justice announcing a civil rights probe and the White House demanding passage of the SAVE America Act.

In a letter to Sherrill, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon demanded the full names, dates of birth, nationalities, residential addresses and registration details of all roughly 6,600 people, along with information about when and where the fewer than 400 affected individuals voted. For any mail-in ballots, the department also requested the accompanying certification and signature. The letter directs New Jersey to preserve all records related to the disclosure and says DOJ will notify the federal court overseeing its pending voter roll lawsuit against the state. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) announced Tuesday that a software failure improperly registered roughly 6,600 people who told the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) they were not U.S. citizens.

Nothing disclosed so far shows an organized voter fraud scheme or an altered election. But, surprising no one, Republicans and Trump officials jumped on the error, with the Department of Justice announcing a civil rights probe and the White House demanding passage of the SAVE America Act. In a letter to Sherrill, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon demanded the full names, dates of birth, nationalities, residential addresses and registration details of all roughly 6,600 people, along with information about when and where the fewer than 400 affected individuals voted. For any mail-in ballots, the department also requested the accompanying certification and signature. The letter directs New Jersey to preserve all records related to the disclosure and says DOJ will notify the federal court overseeing its pending voter roll lawsuit against the state.

Sherrill said the error occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, when people applying for driver’s licenses or identification cards were asked on a keypad whether they were U.S. citizens. Roughly 6,600 answered “no,” but the MVC’s software registered them anyway. The state’s preliminary review found that fewer than 400 of those people subsequently voted in at least one election. Officials have not identified the elections, disclosed the exact number of ballots cast or said whether every affected person was still a noncitizen when they voted. “We are actively working to remove those less than 400 voters from the rolls,” Sherrill said. “We have no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed.” Sherill said the episode has no link to a separate, unsupported allegation from the Department of Homeland Security that as many as 35,152 noncitizens may be registered in New Jersey. Sherrill said the state asked DHS for the identities and evidence behind that number but has received nothing.

[...] Still, within hours, President Donald Trump’s allies and Republican officials began presenting the MVC failure as vindication for their broader claims that noncitizen voting is widespread. The White House and Trump’s political account said Congress must pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping Republican proposal that would impose strict proof-of-citizenship and photo ID requirements on voters, among other anti-voting measures. Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters similarly claimed Sherrill “admitted what the RNC and NJGOP uncovered” through earlier public records requests, although the party did not establish that its previous list involved the same people or the same software error. [...] Also lost in the GOP outrage is the issue of scale. New Jersey reported 6,682,699 registered voters and 4,321,921 ballots cast in the 2024 general election. The approximately 6,600 erroneous registrations amounted to about  one-tenth of 1%, or 0.0001%, of the state’s registered electorate for that election alone. The fewer than 400 affected people who voted would be even more microscopic, representing less than one-hundredth of 1% of the number of ballots cast in that election, though the state has said the voting occurred across multiple elections and has not disclosed how many total ballots those individuals cast.

[...] Republicans are nevertheless using New Jersey’s disclosure to revive the SAVE America Act. The legislation would require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration and impose new photo ID requirements for federal elections. It stalled in the Senate, though Republicans continue pursuing versions of the proposal.

Typical from MAGA media hacks to advance an anti-voting rights agenda… all because New Jersey improperly registered 6,600 noncitizens to vote due to a software failure.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Trump DOJ threatens election officials with criminal prosecution over noncitizen voting

Taken together, the letters mark a sharp new phase in Trump’s election agenda. After losing in court on voter data demands, DOJ is now warni

Yunior Rivas at Democracy Docket:

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice sent letters to top election officials in all 50 states and D.C. Tuesday warning they could face criminal prosecution over possible noncitizen voting, escalating the administration’s pressure campaign against state election officials after courts repeatedly rejected its effort to seize unredacted voter rolls. A DOJ spokesperson confirmed the scope of the letters, saying, “The Department sent these letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections.”

The letters, sent by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, demand that states explain within five days how they plan to comply with federal voter eligibility laws.  Copies reviewed by Democracy Docket were sent to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) and Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar (D). Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) said his office also received a letter and forcefully rejected DOJ’s suggestion that Arizona election officials are failing to properly maintain the state’s voter rolls. “It is insulting to insinuate that the good people at our county recorders’ offices across the state are not doing their jobs correctly,” Fontes said. “Arizona election officials have always worked to ensure that only eligible citizens are registered to vote, and we will continue following Arizona law — not directions that come from political rhetoric or intimidation.”

[...] And the move is especially alarming because DOJ’s attached memo also takes direct aim at one of federal law’s key anti-purge protections: the National Voter Registration Act’s 90-day quiet period, which generally bars systematic voter purges close to a federal election. DOJ’s memo claims that the 90-day cutoff “does not apply to the removal of non-citizens who were never eligible to register in the first place,” while acknowledging contrary authority from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. That position could open the door to late-stage citizenship-based purge efforts, exactly when eligible voters have the least time to discover and fix wrongful removals.

More malfeasance from the Trump Regime’s Department of Injustice.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

How the SAVE Act actually seeks to destroy

Its target is your vote, and millions of Americans could be disenfranchised if it becomes law

Austin Weatherford at Bright America:

If you were relying on President Trump and his allies for information about the state of our nation’s elections, you might understandably believe there are millions of foreigners illegally voting in American elections. And such massive fraud — if you’d been convinced it was happening by your leaders and favorite media influencers — might understandably justify all sorts unconstitutional remedies. Fortunately (for all Americans) that just isn’t true or possible. And yet, the President is demanding passage of the SAVE Act — a complete overhaul of how we handle elections in America. While it is often discussed as a “security” bill, its actual mechanics would build a massive paperwork wall between everyday citizens and the ballot box. Here is a deep dive into what this bill actually does and why it’s causing so much concern.

What exactly is the SAVE Act?

The core goal of the SAVE Act is to require every person to provide “documentary proof of citizenship” just to register to vote for federal elections. In the past, you could usually register by checking a box swearing you are a citizen and providing a driver’s license number, which is tied on the back end to Social Security data, not to mention many other metrics that have allowed our state and local election officials to conduct quality control list maintenance for decades.. Under this act, that system is gone. Instead, you would be forced to show a U.S. passport or an original birth certificate. If you don’t have those, you’d have to find other highly specific government documents that many Americans don’t have readily available. The bill also moves the goalposts for how you register. It would require you to present these documents in person. This would effectively kill the convenience of registering by mail and would completely upend the online registration systems that millions of Americans use today.

A New Set of Hurdles

The SAVE Act doesn’t just ask for ID; it asks for ID that many people simply do not have.

The Passport Problem: Studies show that fewer than half of U.S. citizens actually hold a passport.

The “REAL ID” Trap: You might think your modern “REAL ID” driver’s license — the one with the star on it that required you to jump through so many hoops — would work. It won’t. Most REAL IDs are issued based on “lawful presence” (like a green card), not necessarily citizenship, so they lack the specific markers this law requires.

The Name Change Nightmare: This bill hits married women especially hard. If a woman changed her name after marriage, her birth certificate won’t match her current legal name. Nearly 69 million married women could face new barriers because their documents don’t match perfectly.

Moving Hurdles: If you move to a new state, you can’t just update your registration easily as you can today. You’d have to “chase down” certified records from your old state to prove who you are all over again.

Who is impacted?

While the President claims this law will uncover massive Democratic fraud and purge millions of ineligible voters from the rolls, the data shows that Republican voters would face some of the biggest hurdles. The states where President Trump performed best in 2024 actually have the lowest number of citizens with valid passports. In West Virginia, for instance, 78% of citizens lack a passport, and in Mississippi, that number is 77%. Key GOP voting blocs — like rural Americans, the working class, and those living in “Evangelical hubs” — are among the least likely to have the paperwork this bill demands.

Nationalizing the Voter Rolls

There is also a second version of this plan called the SAVE America Act. This version goes even further by trying to “nationalize” our elections, which the President is demanding despite elections being managed at the state level since our founding. Having election administration decentralized, as it is today, is actually one of the reasons it is so difficult to pull-off impactful fraud. The bill would force every state to submit its entire voter registration list to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The federal government would then run these names through a database called SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements). The problem? This database wasn’t built for elections, and it’s often wrong. When Texas tried using it, the system flagged over 2,700 people as noncitizens. Later investigations found many of those people had already proven their citizenship to the state — the federal data was simply “faulty or incomplete”. This can lead to voter purges, where eligible voters are kicked off the rolls without any notice.

Bright America has a solid piece on the harms of the SAVE Act (and SAVE America Act) on voters and IDs.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

In State of Union, Trump lies about most restrictive voting bill in U.S. history

If it became law, the bill would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.

Jacob Knutson and Yunior Rivas at Democracy Docket:

In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Donald Trump demanded that Congress pass the most restrictive anti-voting bill in U.S. history, the SAVE America Act. But he also exaggerated the bill’s provisions, saying it would impose even more severe restrictions on voting than it actually would.  The comments reflect restrictions the president would like to impose, but that would be so onerous as to imperil his own party. During his speech, Trump said the bill would require showing proof of citizenship to vote — a restriction that is not in the current version of the act. He also once again attacked mail ballots, even though the bill does not currently include any restrictions on voting by mail. “No more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel,” he said. “None.”

In fact, despite pressure from the White House, a ban on no-excuse mail voting was reportedly intentionally left out of the SAVE America Act for fear of jeopardizing GOP support for the measure. Even so, if the SAVE America Act were to become law, it would likely disenfranchise millions of eligible voters by requiring them to show documentary proof of citizenship at registration — not when voting — and to provide photo ID when they cast ballots.  It would affect voters of all ages and races, though women who took their spouse’s last name when they got married, younger voters and voters of color would disproportionately risk disenfranchisement under its requirements.

In arguing for the bill, Trump once again advanced widely debunked claims of widespread voter fraud and framed passage of the act in existential terms for the U.S., calling it “country-saving legislation.” Trump also made it clear that the SAVE America Act is fundamental to the rest of his agenda, telling lawmakers action on the legislation must come “before anything else happens.” To bolster support for this voter suppression bill, Trump has revived long-running, far-right claims that noncitizens are voting in elections in significant numbers — claims that have been repeatedly debunked.  “I’m asking you to approve the SAVE America Act to stop illegal aliens and other unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections,” Trump said during the State of the Union. “The cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s very simple: All voters must show voter ID. All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote.” There is no evidence of widespread noncitizen voting in U.S. elections. Federal law already forbids it, and punishments for illegally voting are severe. 

At Tuesday’s SOTU Address, Donald Trump pumped out loads of lies to urge the passage of the voter suppression bill SAVE America Act, such as baselessly asserting that “noncitizen voting” and “voter fraud” is rampant.