WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that Congress must pass new rules for voter registration to head off the supposed threat of noncitizens illegally voting in November’s election.
“The American people understand this,” Johnson said at a press conference. “They want us, and they deserve us, to take this action and to make sure that illegals cannot taint the election.”
Johnson had scheduled a Wednesday afternoon vote on a Republican bill that would add new paperwork requirements aimed at stopping noncitizens from registering to vote in federal elections, which is already illegal. But Johnson abandoned the plan amid opposition from members of his own party.
Johnson had attached the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, to a must-pass government funding bill to boost its chances of getting through Congress. The gambit does not appear to be working.
But even if Congress were to approve the SAVE Act, and President Joe Biden signed it into law this week, multiple House Republicans, all of whom support the legislation, said Tuesday that there wouldn’t be enough time for the new rules to have an impact before Election Day.
“I think most of the states already have in place all the rules and regulations that are going to guide this election,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) told HuffPost. “I don’t know that anything that we did that would be signed into law between now and November that would have much of an impact.”
Rogers is one of several Republicans who have come out against Johnson’s plan to tie the SAVE Act to government funding, citing concerns that the funding levels are too high. He voted for the SAVE Act when the House passed it as a standalone measure in July, as did every other Republican in attendance. (The Democratic-controlled Senate ignored it.)
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) — who has described the SAVE Act as “the hill to die on” for House Republicans, even if their push for the legislation results in a government shutdown — echoed Rogers.
“It never does have the impact,” Norman said. “You’ve got to start somewhere. And is it a catchall? No, but it’s one we’ve got to have in place.”
The bill would require people who register to vote to provide proof of citizenship, such as by furnishing a passport or a government-issued photo identification card combined with a birth certificate. Current law requires people to declare they’re citizens on voter registration forms under penalty of perjury. As a result, noncitizen voting is rare enough that there’s no credible evidence it’s ever swayed a modern election.
The main purpose of the SAVE Act isn’t to become law, however; it’s to boost GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s bogus claims that Democrats will use illegal voting to steal the November election from him, just like he falsely says they did in 2020.
The SAVE Act would direct states to take “affirmative steps” to remove noncitizens from voter rolls and create a “private right of action” that would subject election officials to civil lawsuits for registering noncitizens to vote. Federal law already requires states to make a “reasonable effort” to remove ineligible voters from their lists.
The Bipartisan Policy Center, a centrist think tank in Washington, warned lawmakers in July that there’s not enough time for states to make the SAVE Act’s required changes.
“The SAVE Act requires significant changes to each step of the voter registration process: how voters register, how their identities are verified, and how list maintenance is performed on an ongoing basis,” the BPC wrote in an issue brief at the time . “These changes would be costly and time consuming, taking months–if not years–to achieve.”
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said it was still worth passing the SAVE Act if only to send a message to voters about election integrity.
“The symbolism, I think, and the warning, and I think there would probably be an advertising campaign with it to sort of inform people, ‘Please, don’t run this risk,’” Cole said. “So I think it would have some impact.”
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the chair of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, said new rules could at least help in states where voters can register on the same day they cast ballots.
“Admittedly, you’re 56 days from the election, so there’s not going to be perfect implementation and enforcement if the SAVE Act would have passed today,” Good said. “However, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote ― we have some states that do same-day registration ― between now and the election would be helpful.”
But if the SAVE Act did become law, civil rights groups would likely sue to prevent states from improperly removing citizen voters. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) noted that court cases would delay the bill’s implementation.
“It won’t take effect,” Massie said. “I mean, the people who are going to vote have already registered to vote.”
Massie has derided pairing the SAVE Act with government funding legislation as a “shiny object” strategy by Johnson to convince conservative Republicans to support liberal spending.
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), another Republican who opposes Johnson’s gambit, also said it was too late for the SAVE Act.
“I really don’t believe that there’s enough time before the November elections to get it fully implemented to make sure that illegals aren’t voting,” Rosendale said.
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