From the Editors: Voter ID is a popular, commonsense reform — so why are Democrats opposing it?
There is a lot of talk in politics these days around “80-20 issues” — debates where 80 percent of the population is on one side of the issue and only 20 percent oppose them. The participation of biological males in female sports is one such issue — 80 percent oppose this — but another one in the news lately is the question, “should you have to prove your citizenship to register to vote?”
That is the subject of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), which is currently pending in Congress. It passed the House in a nearly party-line vote of 218-213 (one Democrat joined the Republicans) and is now before the Senate, where it faces a tougher fight due to Democratic threats to filibuster it.
It is strange, on the surface, to see that a proposition favored by 83 percent of Americans — including 96 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of independents, and even 66 percent of Democrats — would find near-unanimous opposition from Democratic senators. It is even stranger when one considers that holding American citizenship is already a requirement to vote in our elections.
The SAVE Act would not restrict the franchise by a single legal vote; it would simply enforce a law that has been on the books forever. Only Americans can vote in American elections — what about that do Senate Democrats have a problem with?
The Act would require proof of citizenship only to register to vote — you wouldn’t need to prove it every time you vote. This seems like common sense. There was a time when no one had to show ID for much of anything. Indeed, photo IDs didn’t even exist. But in the 21st century, you can no longer drink underage because you borrowed your older brother’s draft card, or other similar dodges of bygone days. Identification documents are a fact of life in many ways.
We show ID to board a plane — and the requirements for that have recently been strengthened under the REAL ID Act of 2005, which is finally being implemented in Pennsylvania after many delays. That act also requires ID to enter a federal building, and many private office buildings also require visitors to show ID to enter. Parents can’t even enter their kids’ public school without having their ID scanned into the system.
And that’s not to mention all of the age-restricted products that require identity verification before you can purchase — alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and marijuana in places where that is sold legally. Renting a car? Driving your own car? You need an ID for that, too. Even accessing welfare benefits requires some form of proving who you are, though not necessarily a government document.
All of which is to say, nearly everyone in modern life has to show ID for many things that are far less important than voting. The Democrats who oppose the SAVE Act seem to think that voting is so important that we need to eliminate any requirement that it’s being done correctly and by eligible voters. But they have it precisely backwards: a right this important must be safeguarded even more than ephemeral pleasures like buying a beer or a pack of smokes.
Voter ID laws are now in place in 36 of the 50 states, and turnout is unaffected by them. We were told that requiring voters to prove their identity was the new Jim Crow, but when states implemented it, turnout did not change across any ethnic or racial group. Most people have the ID already, and others are capable of getting it. Voters aren’t children and they aren’t idiots. There was a time when protests against voter ID could be believed, but we have now seen it enacted across a majority of states and it works just fine.
Millions of Americans doubt the security of our elections, something that was once unimaginable. As Senator Dave McCormick said in a recent speech on the Senate floor, “We have an opportunity, in this Congress, to remove deep vulnerabilities in our elections and restore America’s trust in this core function of our Republic. I can think of few things more important than that.”
All through the 2024 election cycle, Democrats piously proclaimed that “democracy is on the ballot.” But they do more to protect us from a 20-year-old buying a beer than they do from an illegal alien voting for president. Democracy is precious. Our republic is built on it. The vast majority of Americans understand that that’s all the more reason to safeguard it.
One of the ways to prove your identity is by a passport. The state department processes passports. What if all the sudden, the State department says “the processing time is now 1 year, sorry but you have to wait.” In fact, the state department now says libraries (a government entity) can no longer process passports. Why do you think that is?
When the federal government controls one of the mechanisms to prove your identity, they could disenfranchise millions simply by grinding the wheels of government to a halt.
You want voter ID? Sure. Make the turnaround time for passport processing 2 weeks by funding the state department more. Or, allowing libraries, DMVs, post offices, city halls, police stations, etc. to allow for passport processing. That seems reasonable no? Would Republicans be for that?
Horsefeathers. What if the dog had not stopped to poop? He would have caught the rabbit! Scare tactics are childish and stupid. You want CITY HALLS to allow for passport processing? As corrupt as city halls have been in our history? Let’s just bite this bullet and require voter ID to register to vote.
Here’s what this seemingly innocuous SAVE Act would actually do. https://open.substack.com/pub/ibegtodiffer/p/what-is-the-save-act-designed-to?r=dvcj&utm_medium=ios Illegal voting by immigrants is a statistical rounding error. The real aim is to keep THOSE people from voting!
Douglas,
Read your substack. Women won’t be able to get ID because they’re married and have different last name, now? Hahaha. Get real. Hahahaha. That’s good. Every single “argument” about why certain people can’t get ID or won’t be motivated to get ID always boils down to: they’re more pathetic and not smart enough… it reveals how the far Left actually thinks about people. Outstanding drivel.
AND far Lefties don’t realize that Republicans have those same “pathetic” people within their voting rolls, so why won’t it impact their married women voters? Here is the reality: Republicans can hardly be bothered to come out and vote, and these voter ID rules will have the unintended consequence of hurting the Republican turnout more than the Dems. But argue away with your implicit bias against women. Hahahaha. It would be really entertaining to see the comparison between unmarried women vs married women Dem voters, btw. Hahahaha.
Here’s the REALITY of the SAVE Act. https://open.substack.com/pub/ibegtodiffer/p/what-is-the-save-act-designed-to?r=dvcj&utm_medium=ios
Read this substack, too.
PolitiFact: [Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary reportedly shows how “mules” delivered 400,000 illegal votes. Experts say the evidence D’Souza points to is inherently flawed because]
1. “Many states have laws allowing people to return completed mail ballots on behalf of others, such as family members.”
Wait, how is this different than a husband filling out all his family members’ ballots? [It is not.]
2. “Ballot drop boxes are more secure than standard mail boxes.”
There are?!? Really? Why? Also, replace “ballot drop boxes” with “drunk uber drivers” and “standard mail boxes” with “you driving drunk” and your sentence becomes: Drunk uber drivers are more secure [practice] than you driving drunk. So… I guess? But that doesn’t mean either is valid or good idea, at all.
I have always shown my id at the table, due to a hyphenated last name. Saves me and everyone else time when looking through the books. Seems like a no brainer anyway. That said, real id is different than passports which are different then enhanced ids, etc… We need to have ONE single ID, which would be good for travel abroad, voting, driving and a USA citizen mark somewhere on the card. Too many fees and to many changes. Your real ID does not show you are a citizen of USA.. just shows you have a real id and live in PA. You can be a non citizen and get a real id, as long as you have the paperwork. Time for a national id maybe.
The entire debate about showing ID to vote and the subsequent blather about disenfranchisement is just so much bollocks. There are many “show ids” required for social and welfare services that people willingly get ids for then show demonstrate the fallacy of “keeping people from voting.” As long as the show id requirement means getting some kind of benefit, people have no problem getting and showing it. If I want to drive a car, I have to get a license with my photo on it. If I want to get on a plane or go into a federal facility or get on a military base, I need a photo id of the proper sort. I have occasion to visit hospitals for chronic conditions, and I have to have a photos id for each visit. Could I say that if I didn’t have an id, I would be denied medical care? Maybe, but not for emergency room care. For non-emergency care hospital are rightly concerned who is coming into their facility. Beside the occasional inconvenience, getting an id is not a real problem unless you are here in country illegally.
Congrats on living a life of privilege. I’m glad you’ve been so sheltered your entire life, but down here in the real world, other people can’t just “get an ID” for a whole host of reasons.
I know you’ve never thought of this because you’ve never been unable to, but not everyone has lived your perfect life.
What are the host of reasons? When PA passed voter ID before, democrats said it would be offensively racist because black communities cant afford it or figure it out. Republicans offered to have trucks that drove around for free to register and give ids. Dems still said no. Because apparently, as you seem to think, black communities are too stupid to google it and get to one conveniently placed DMV around the state. Please tell me where this problem lies?
“Other people can’t just “get an ID” for a whole host of reasons.” Why not? Inquiring minds would like to know. Can you give a detailed list? And by the way, its NOT privilege getting an ID, its called “being a legal American citizen.” So your right, being illegal would make that problematic.” Most people have their paperwork in order.. if you don’t, or your illegal, that’s on you. Figure it out.
Why must the democrats cheat? Will they were not able to bankrupt the country with bidenomics. Now we are sending their criminal invaders back to where they came from so the people are not going to give up their freedom so they can take care of us because crime is so bad. That leaves them with cheating on elections by none citizen voting or people going around voting at different polls on the same day. Then we have paper ballots with no controls which are not needed because we already have absentee ballots, but then there is controls on them and that would make it harder to cheat. Democrats believe in dictatorashoism (communism, nazism, fascism, or dictator). What ever ruling class you want to use.