WASHINGTON—Cracks in the solid wall of Republican lawmaker support for Trump’s plans to derail future elections are appearing more and more these days. Evidence of that is seen in a standoff now between the president and a split Senate Republican majority that could well may doom the so-called “SAVE Act,” the GOP’s monstrous voter repression bill.
That, of course, is good news to workers, the poor, people of color, and women, all of whom would have their voting rights severely restricted under the bill, officially called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
The problem for Trump and the Republicans supporting the voter suppression is that they need 60 Senate votes to break a Democratic filibuster threat, and the Senate has only 53 Republicans. Further, not all of them agree on schemes to junk the filibuster and pass the bill.
The SAVE Act sharply curbs use of mail-in voting and drop boxes and sets earlier deadlines for ballots to get to elections offices. Furthermore, it requires voters to prove their citizenship by bringing expensive and sometimes unattainable papers, such as birth certificates, or passports.
The proposed measure would virtually repeal prior voting rights laws by establishing a Jim Crow-like regime where voters, especially voters of color, would have to go through multiple and expensive steps to prove they’re citizens with the right to vote.
It would also clobber other groups of voters whom Trump wants to discourage, and who largely don’t stand with him: Working women, students, many of the elderly, workers, and union members.
Speaking for organized labor, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Jody Calemine told senators that unions and their members strongly oppose the SAVE Act.
“Congress should be making it easier—not harder—for working people to cast their ballots and participate in their government. This bill does just the opposite. It undermines working people’s ability to vote,” Calemine wrote in message to members.
The SAVE Act requires signatures on current voting rolls match names the voters originally registered under. That could disenfranchise 21 million married women.
If Mary Doe registered under that name when she turned 18, but is now Mary Jones, and didn’t re-register, with proof, such as a valid passport, under her new name, she wouldn’t be able to vote.
“By requiring extreme documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote or update an existing registration, this bill will result in the disenfranchisement of U.S. citizens, especially working class and lower income Americans,” Calemine’s letter to senators continued.
He dismissed Trump’s and the GOP’s “widespread voter fraud” justification for the bill. There’s “no evidence” of that, Calemine noted.
“The SAVE Act requires Americans to obtain and produce documents like passports and certified birth certificates to prove their citizenship whenever they register to vote or update their registration. Those with the easiest go of it will be those with a valid passport, but not everyone has a passport. The poorer you are, the less likely you will have one.”
That especially hits older voters of color, who may lack birth certificates, or younger voters who vacation in the U.S. and don’t need a passport for that—“if they can afford a vacation at all.”
Those provisions run afoul of the Constitution, which gives the states—not Trump—power over running elections. Trump demands the right to “federalize” elections and disdains the Constitution he swore to uphold.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has told Trump “the votes aren’t there” to break a filibuster threat by at least 44 Democrats and both independents. The position of contrarian Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is unknown.
“The votes aren’t there, one, to nuke the filibuster, and the votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster. It’s just a reality,” Thune told reporters on March 10.
“I’m the person who has to deliver sometimes the not-so-good news that the math doesn’t add up, but those are the facts and there’s no getting around it.”
A live “talking filibuster” recalls the movie Mr. Smith Goes To Washington starring Jimmy Stewart, or the record 25-hour-5-minute filibuster last March 31-April 1 by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. His talkathon included criticizing Trump’s domestic policy plans and the chainsaw against government workers wielded by multibillionaire Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump sees the SAVE Act as a key to his campaign to hold Congress this fall—both the House and the Senate—against a rising Democratic tide, and the unpopularity of his agenda, both foreign (the Iran war and military aid to Israel) and domestic (higher prices, fewer jobs).
So, Trump spouted a threat that he won’t sign any bills until the Senate sends the SAVE Act to his desk.
The catch to that statement, constitutional scholars note, is Trump did not threaten to veto any bills, only just not to sign them. And the Constitution’s Article I says bills become laws after 10 days—minus Sundays—without the presidential signature, if the Oval Office occupant does nothing.
Advocates for voting rights, while happy about the prospect of defeating the SAVE Act warn that there are many other voter repression tools the Republicans are pursuing, including gerrymandering and takeovers of local elections by pro-MAGA state governments, for example. The administration is also threatening to send armed federal agents to polling places wherever it would like to suppress the vote. The use of masked armed agents to terrorize the population would, of course, be nothing new for this administration.
Democrats have filed lawsuits to prevent the administration from carrying out this particular threat.
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