The president of the United States has spent the last 10 years in various capacities arguing that there are vast amounts of voter fraud in American elections. “The election is rigged.” “Trump maintains the difference was votes cast illegally.” Voter fraud is not a problem in the United States. You personally have a higher chance of getting hit by lightning than there is of someone casting a fraudulent ballot. Noncitizen voting in federal elections is also not a problem. “No evidence of widespread voter fraud,” “Or even minuscule voting by undocumented individuals in the country.” “We’re trying to save America.” No amount of complaining will change the reality that there was no mass wave of noncitizen voting that kept Donald Trump from winning a popular vote majority in 2016 or winning the election in 2020. If there is no meaningful amount of noncitizen voting, why is it that the White House and its allies are preoccupied with trying to pass “the Save America Act” “Save America Act” “Save America Act” SAVE being an acronym for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility. The Save Act would require Americans to produce proof of citizenship when they register to vote. Proof of citizenship would include a birth certificate or a passport. “No, your Real ID wouldn’t count. No, you could not just show up with your driver’s license. You would have to bring your passport or your birth certificate.” Now, I hope you can already see what the problem is here. Many millions of Americans, do not have easy and immediate access to their birth certificates, and they may have changed their name since being born. And their names on their IDs may not match their names on their birth certificates. And about half of Americans do not have a passport. Moreover, to get a passport, you have to pay about $165. And to get a birth certificate, most states require you to pay a fee: 10, 20, 30, 40 dollars. That is in addition to the time you have to take to apply to get a birth certificate and apply to get a passport. Now, supporters of the Save Act, insist that this is a worthwhile burden. “We have an opportunity to move forward with election integrity, to regain the trust of the American people and the way that we operate our elections.” Forcing potentially tens of millions of Americans to pay a fee to prove their citizenship, in addition to being potentially an unconstitutional poll tax, is something that degrades the notion that voting is a right, an inviolable right, that ought to be supported and not restricted, that ought to be expanded and not limited, that ought to be encouraged and not discouraged. And that’s what the Save Act would do. It would discourage people from voting. And that, I think, explains why the administration is preoccupied with passing this, because the president is worried that his party will lose control of Congress. He’s worried that his assault on good governance, that his cuts to the safety net, that his tax cuts for the rich, that his transformation of immigration enforcement into a roving squad of secret police — “Do you have a warrant?” “I don’t. We don’t need a warrant, bro. Stop getting that in your head.” complete with gratuitous violence against American citizens on the street, are the kinds of things that might turn the public against him, his administration and his party. But rather than try to switch gears or change course, his solution is he’ll just try to restrict the number of people who could possibly vote against him. And so, in addition to not being necessary, in addition to being an assault on people’s fundamental right to vote, the Save Act also reflects something I think critical about President Donald Trump, which is that he doesn’t have the mind, the orientation, of someone interested in representative government. That he rejects the idea that he might have to persuade or that his power does not entitle him to everything he wants. Democracy is about a give and take among political equals. And what this attempt to enshrine a set of election restrictions demonstrates is that Donald Trump does not see the rest of the American people as his equals. He sees them as his subjects.
