The New Law is Putting MORE SCRUTINY On Who Can Cast Their Ballot This Election

More SCRUTINY On Who Can Actually Cast Their Ballot

On Wednesday, a law to guarantee that only citizens of the United States may cast ballots in federal elections was approved by the House of Representatives.

 

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act was passed by a final vote of 221-198 after being debated on the House floor by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

 

Representatives Henry Cuellar of Texas, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Don Davis of North Carolina, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington were the five Democrats who supported the bill. The bill will now go to the Senate, where Democrats will likely oppose it vigorously. Additionally, President Biden has declared he will veto the bill. Roy presented the bill in May, and earlier this year, at a high-profile news conference held at Mar-a-Lago, former President Trump promoted the idea.

 

Johnson was circulating a paper within the House GOP conference before to the week-long July Fourth holiday, outlining the necessity of the bill.

On the social media network X, he persisted in presenting his argument. The House Speaker began, “The SAVE Act will safeguard our elections by ensuring only American citizens vote in federal elections,” and went on to detail the legislation’s functions in a series of posts.

 

 

Johnson claims that the bill compels state election workers to inquire about an applicant’s citizenship prior to granting them a voter registration form. In order to facilitate voter registration, it also mandates that proof of citizenship be provided before registering to vote in federal elections. Additionally, it grants state officials access to a federal agency database, which they can use to remove noncitizens from voter rolls and verify citizenship for those who do not have it. Additionally, Johnson stated that the measure requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to notify state chief election officials when an individual has been naturalized, enabling them to exercise their new right to vote, and directs DHS to decide whether to initiate removal proceedings of noncitizens who have been identified as having registered to vote in federal elections.

 

The Tea Party Patriots Action celebrated the passing of the SAVE Act by releasing a statement following the vote. “Tea Party Patriots Action strongly supports the SAVE Act because it would bolster the integrity of our country’s federal elections by closing the loopholes that allow noncitizens to register and vote,” the organization stated. “This legislation would represent a step forward in upholding the sanctity of our democratic process and ensuring that every vote cast in our federal elections is done so only by American citizens.”

 

Since only citizens are now able to vote in federal elections under current U.S. law, opponents of the bill argue that it is redundant and unneeded. However, states are prohibited from verifying citizenship status by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. More so than preventing noncitizens from voting, critics of the bill contend that it would result in the denial of voting rights to American citizens.