SAVE America Act will harm Republican voters

Republicans in the U.S. Senate this week are engaged in a myopic pantomime of performative propaganda.

At President Donald Trump's insistence, they're pushing for the unlikely passage of legislation – the SAVE America Act – that would make it much harder to register to vote. That could significantly disenfranchise Republican voters across the country.

Trump doesn't care.

His fragile ego is dependent on debunked claims of "rigged elections" to explain his loss of the popular voter in 2016, when he won the presidency, and the outcome of the 2020 election, when he lost it.

The SAVE America Act would require a passport, birth certificate, Enhanced Drivers License or other government document to register to vote.

Nearly half of Americans hold passports. The Center For American Progress has found that "high rates of passport ownership are predominately concentrated in blue states, while low rates of passport ownership are overwhelmingly concentrated in red states."

Just five states offer Enhanced Drivers Licenses: Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington. Those are all blue states.

The Brennan Center for Justice found that millions of eligible American voters lack access to a birth certificate. And women who take their husband's last name when marrying would face obstacles if their birth certificate lists their maiden name.

The Pew Center for Research found that Republican women are more likely to take their husband's name.

Researchers have found that more than 21 million eligible American voters – about 9% of the electorate – don't have access to the necessary documents to register to vote under the SAVE America Act.

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Trump this week vowed to use the impending failure of legislation – he called it "one of the most important and consequential pieces of legislation in the history of Congress, and America itself" – to politically punish Democrats and Republicans who don't vote for it.

David Becker, a former Department of Justice lawyer who founded The Center for Election Innovation and Research, held a March 18 media briefing on the SAVE America Act, predicting "it would incredibly, negatively impact voters across the political spectrum."

"I don't think there's anyone who can say definitively, if this were to pass, which party would be hurt more by it," Becker said. "I think it's highly likely that Republicans would likely be more hurt by implementation of the SAVE America Act than Democratic voters, because a lot of the voters who have difficulty digging up their documented proof of citizenship are Republicans."

Trump claims the SAVE America Act will prevent noncitizens from voting, which is already illegal and incredibly rare. He's really just worried about Republicans losing control of Congress in November's midterm elections and grasping for ways to maintain his party's hold in the House and Senate.

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