Congressional Democrats insist voter ID legislation is a Republican scheme to suppress the minority vote, despite an overwhelming majority of Black and Hispanic Americans saying they want people to show a government-issued photo identification to cast a ballot.
Democrats are now lining up against the Republicans’ Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which is scheduled for a vote this week in the House. It would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID at the polls.
Democrats in both chambers struggled to reconcile their die-hard opposition when 82% of Hispanic voters and 76% of Black voters support a photo ID requirement at the polls, according to a Pew Research Center survey last year.
The survey found that 85% of White voters and 77% of Asian American voters support requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote.
Although a photo ID requirement is more popular among Republican voters, at 95%, it is also supported by 71% of Democrats.
When pressed by The Washington Times to explain their opposition in the face of overwhelming public support, some Democratic lawmakers floundered. Others doubled down on allegations that it would disenfranchise voters who don’t have, or can’t afford, up-to-date licenses.
“It really depends on the text,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat.
She compared the text of the SAVE Act to Jim Crow laws that blocked Black voters from the polls: “What they are seeking to introduce is to bring us back to a time of poll taxes, and we cannot allow our nation to slide back into such a deep, dark and discriminatory time.”
Rep. Greg Casar, Texas Democrat, said his state requires photo ID to vote, but he takes issue with “very specific provisions in many of the Republican proposals.”
He said he was also worried that a married woman may have difficulty changing her name on government documents, such as a birth certificate, to prove citizenship.
The SAVE America Act would require individuals to present an eligible photo ID before voting and to present proof of citizenship in person when registering to vote, such as a passport or birth certificate. It would also order states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls.
Proponents of a federal voter ID law argue that it would increase public confidence in elections and prevent fraud, including double voting, voter impersonation and noncitizen voting.
“I don’t know about other Democrats, but I’m not against some identification,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, where voters don’t have to show a photo ID but can confirm their identity with various documents, such as a utility bill or a checkbook.
“If there’s a need for more identification, that’s a responsibility of the state,” he told The Times.
Many Democratic lawmakers maintained that the Republican bill is designed to hurt voters.
“It’s really important for us to be clear that we should be making it easier, more accessible for Americans, for U.S. citizens, to vote,” said Rep. Adelita Grijalva, Arizona Democrat. “The SAVE Act is far from a bill that’s actually making it more possible for people to vote, and when you’re suppressing so many people, especially because of their last name, because of women, because of many reasons, I think that it makes it really difficult for us to want to support a bill like that.”
Like many other Democrats, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts likened the legislation to the Jim Crow laws of the post-Civil War era that enforced racial segregation in the South.
“The Republican changes are designed to ensure that people that Republicans think would vote Democratic are less likely to get access to the ballot box,” she said. “That’s what Jim Crow is all about.”
Earlier versions of the SAVE Act were passed twice in the Republican-led House but weren’t taken up by the Senate. The primary Republican sponsors are Rep. Chip Roy of Texas and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.
Mr. Roy said the pressure is on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, to bring the bill to a vote in his chamber.
“The American people are clear: they support Voter ID and agree that only U.S. citizens should vote in our elections,” Mr. Roy said in a statement. “Once the bill passes the House, Leader Thune must bring it to the Senate floor and force Democrats to explain why they oppose securing our elections.”
Still, the SAVE Act has a slim chance of passing the Senate without significant Democratic support.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, called the bill “nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0.”
“What they’re trying to do here is the same thing that was done in the South for decades to prevent people of color from voting,” Mr. Schumer said recently on MS NOW.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican and a Mexican American who staunchly supports the bill, called out Mr. Schumer for claiming it was racist.
“If you are a minority that wants a voter ID apparently you are for racist policies,” she wrote on X.
Although 36 states have laws requiring voters to show some form of identification, the requirements most often allow alternatives to a government-issued photo ID. In many places, a signature testifying to one’s identity will suffice.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only 10 states have strict photo ID requirements to vote: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
Some Democratic lawmakers said a national voter ID standard would bolster President Trump’s narrative about a stolen 2020 election and make it harder for citizens to vote against Republicans.
Ms. Warren said her party is concerned about the Republican Party embracing the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump and Republicans’ aggressive efforts to gut the Voting Rights Act.
“We are concerned … that many of the ways that those same Republicans say, ‘Oh, they just want something mild,’ in fact, is well designed to make it harder for American citizens to vote,” Ms. Warren said.
“What Donald Trump wants is not access for all American citizens. He’s pretty clear about that, and the Republicans also want that because they understand that this turn toward White nationalism and an out-of-control ICE makes them pretty unpopular, and they’re getting really nervous about facing voters this November,” she said.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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