Trump wants to upend voting to fix a 'virtually nonexistant' problem

President Donald Trump has demanded that Congress treat the SAVE America Act as its "no. 1 priority," but according to a new analysis from the New York Times, the bill would upend the voting process for millions to fix a problem that is "virtually nonexistent."

In a piece published Wednesday, political commentator Jamelle Bouie broke down why the bill would impose "a broad set of new voting restrictions" for no good reason. Trump has claimed that the new rules — requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a photo ID at polling places — will address widespread voter fraud, both from non-citizens voting and from people pretending to be others at polling locations. As Bouie explained, these are two issues that are so rare as to be negligible.

"Both noncitizen voting and in-person voter fraud are virtually nonexistent — they simply do not happen," Bouie explained. "Election officials aren’t flying blind either; every state that requires voter registration requires some identification to register, and 36 states have explicit voter ID laws. No matter where you vote in the United States, you must at some point prove your residence and identity."

The SAVE Act would, then, impose new barriers to voting that are both redundant and, for many, a considerable inconvenience. As Bouie explained further, while supporters of the bill have argued that the requirements around proving citizenship are reasonable, in practice, they require documentation — like birth certificates or passports – that many Americans lack easy access to.

"To register to vote, you would have to prove that you were an American citizen," Bouie wrote. "And the only acceptable documents under the law are a passport, a REAL ID that verifies citizenship, a valid military or tribal ID or a birth certificate. You do not need a sharp mind to see the problems here. Roughly half of Americans do not have a passport and millions of people, especially older Americans, lack easy access to their birth certificates. Overall, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, an estimated 9 percent of eligible voters, or 21.3 million Americans, do not have ready access to documents that could prove their citizenship."

The obstacles do not stop there. Acquiring a passport can cost a minimum of $165, which many low-income Americans simply do not have to spare. New birth certificate copies also carry fees, leading many critics to brand the SAVE Act as a new form of discriminatory "poll taxes." The bill would also require all voter registration to be done in-person, which Bouie explained would be "a serious obstacle for the tens of millions of Americans who are infirm, disabled, rely on public transportation or live in rural areas, far from a government office."

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