The proposed SAVE America Act and Make Elections Great Again Act (MEGA) represent the far right’s latest attempt to undo democracy and take over our elections. Mere weeks after President Donald Trump called on fellow Republicans to “nationalize” elections, his allies in Congress took action. They moved on to two new laws that could severely curtail ballot access.
The fact that election administration, real integrity, and security could be affected is a feature, not a bug. It’s a poll tax on steroids.
And while many people have focused on the potential for the SAVE Act to keep married women from being able to vote, both pieces of legislation are full of provisions that have proven to disenfranchise thousands of Americans. Provisions that increase administrative demands on local and state boards of election could wreak havoc on the U.S. election system at all levels.
In a recent statement, Demetria McCain, Legal Defense Fund Director of Policy, said the SAVE America Act is what happens when voter suppression links up with its big cousin, authoritarianism. Another reminder that U.S. authoritarianism is homegrown and Black folks are keenly aware of the lengths this government will go to deny our rights and political participation.
“It is disingenuous, it is discriminatory, and it is all based on a continuously disproven narrative of voter fraud propagated by an administration concerned not with voter protections but solely with the fear of letting people select their own leaders,” McCain said. “The authoritarianism woven into this bill has no place in our elections. Instead of trying to solve a nonexistent problem, Congress must focus its attention on the affordability crisis that is decimating the livelihoods of millions of Black people and the federal encroachment on city streets.”
Nearly 20 years after a bipartisan majority in Congress last reauthorized the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), the tide has turned. The once bipartisan commitment to ensuring a basic standard for ballot access no longer exists.
The biggest threat to U.S. elections comes from the right’s quest for control
Election denial is the latest tool used by the far right to gain control over our democracy and economy. An estimated 153 election deniers hold office in Congress, most of them in the House of Representatives.
Given the hyperpartisan nature of U.S. politics, these people have been given broad rein to make outlandish claims. They continue to push claims of alleged fraud, despite the well-documented fact that it is virtually non-existent. A lot of the resources and reports relied upon to “prove” a threat are riddled with errors or overgeneralize different types of fraud to justify disenfranchising our communities.
And sometimes it’s just flat-out fabrications of situations. Instead of ensuring people can exercise their rights as citizens, the current dynamic is driven by election deniers who are obsessed with undermining public confidence in the electoral process.
As we recently witnessed in Fulton County, Georgia, the false concern of so-called fraud has been used to sow doubt on legitimate processes. ProPublica documented how a web of election deniers connected with former Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell had been involved in recent efforts to keep Trump’s Big Lie alive in Georgia.
The previously disproven claims they keep recycling served as the foundation for one of Trump’s White House lawyers to order the FBI’s unprecedented raid a few weeks ago. Kurt Olsen, the attorney in question, has been tasked with relitigating the 2020 election despite the claims having been litigated and disproven numerous times.
He was even involved in efforts by Texas’ attorney general in 2020 to challenge other states’ certification of their results.
The SAVE America Act and the MEGA Act are tools of mass disenfranchisement
The SAVE and MEGA Acts offer fake solutions to problems that do not genuinely exist. To be clear, neither law addresses a genuine issue affecting American voters; instead, both aim to minimize ballot access.
The proposed laws do nothing but create an electoral version of stop-and-frisk. They increase opportunities for far-right anti-democracy groups to remove our voices and votes from decision-making.
A Democracy Docket breakdown outlined issues with the MEGA Act, including how it could undo major advancements, such as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), also known as the “Motor Voter” law.
Did you update your license and your voter registration at the same time? Thank the NVRA for expanding voter registration, including the ability to register at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Proposals could require voter registration to happen in person at an election office, something only 6% of voters currently do.
The law would also make it difficult for people to challenge or correct voter purges, another way in which people have been wrongfully removed from the rolls. It could also make discriminatory mass challenges by bad actors more common.
Since 2020, far-right groups have engaged in mass challenges that have burdened local boards of elections, voters, and taxpayers. The challenges often rely on flawed data and, if allowed to proceed, could take hundreds or thousands of voters out of commission ahead of a major election.
The MEGA Act would also require constant re-verification of registration, placing a major burden on local and state election officials without any regard for costs or staffing.
Proof-of-citizenship provisions often exclude eligible voters
While often presented as common sense, proof-of-citizenship provisions are clear tools of disenfranchisement. It is already a requirement that people be U.S. citizens to register to vote.
Requiring proof of citizenship, not just identity, has already proven problematic in states like Kansas. According to the Associated Press, the law prevented over 30,000 otherwise eligible voters from registering. It represents an estimated 12% of first-time voters.
Shaving off a few thousand voters here and there can make a big difference in an election. Part of the integrity of elections should include ensuring that eligible people can access the ballot—not excluding them.
Earlier this month, The Center for Election Innovation & Research released an updated report debunking claims of widespread non-citizen voting.
“CEIR continues to find that sweeping allegations about noncitizen registrations or voting appear to arise from misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about complex voter data,” read the report. “In every examined case, when claims about large numbers of noncitizens on voting rolls are subject to scrutiny and properly investigated, the number of alleged instances falls drastically.”
States already have provisions to address improper voting, and swift action is often taken, sometimes resulting in unjust outcomes.
Strict voter ID requirements
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states require some form of voter ID. The other 14 states and D.C. have other means of identifying voters.
Some states simply require voters to sign their names in a pollbook, and the signatures are compared. While signature matching has its own issues, there are other ways to identify people than those outlined in the SAVE and MEGA Acts.
According to the Fair Elections Center, the MEGA Act would interfere with community-based voter registration efforts and impose an even stricter voter ID standard that could exclude more than 34.5 million Americans.
It would block people from being able to use non-photo ID, a method available in several states, and student IDs, providing a possible deterrent for students. Almost 10% of Americans lack the required documents and could become disenfranchised if these laws pass.
Also, given the rising costs and fragile economic conditions, someone who might otherwise vote may not be able to set aside the funds to get a new birth certificate or even a passport. Currently, a new passport book costs $130 plus a $35 processing fee. A new passport card is $30 plus a $35 processing fee. Note that a passport card has limitations as compared to a passport book.
This does not include the cost of replacing your birth certificate, obtaining passport photos, or the time spent traveling. Not everyone can afford to take off work on a whim.
This is an all-hands-on-deck moment
The current moment requires people to stay alert and tuned in about what is happening in our elections and who is calling the shots. We are living in a country where the Department of Justice is shaking down states their full unredacted voter rolls and administration officials ordered an FBI raid based on disproven are leading raids based on false claims.
The fixation on nationalized databases and having people show their papers, from ICE raids to voting, points to a broader issue for our safety and general well-being. While it’s possible neither proposed law will make it out of the Senate, people still need to pay attention and not trust that the process will turn out in our favor.
Here are a few things you can do to help defend our collective right to vote:
- Stay up to date with what’s happening in Congress as well as your state legislature. Follow outlets and organizations that track and advocate for ballot access and voting rights.
- Take a minute to complete the call to action. Don’t just like and share the post, make the call, or send the email. It doesn’t matter.
- Share what’s happening with your friends and family. We are all busy people, and not everyone sees the same information. The more concerned citizens who raise their voices and make demands, the better.
- Volunteer to be a democracy defender. From signing up to be a poll worker (often paid positions) to attending local election board hearings and meetings, there are ways you can help ensure ballot access is protected in your community.
SEE ALSO:
Marsha Blackburn Attacks SCOTUS Justice KBJ For Attending The Grammys
Georgia FBI Election Raid Signals Looming Threat To Midterm Elections
House Passes SAVE Act Voting Bill That Will Disenfranchise Millions
