Schumer Is Wrong, The SAVE America Act Does Not Disenfranchise Anyone

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is so strongly opposed to secure elections that he called the SAVE America Act bill “a naked attempt to rig our elections” and said Democrats were prepared to remain on the floor “all day, all night, as long as it takes.”

The SAVE America Act would require citizens to show both proof of citizenship and identification when voting. It would also severely restrict mail-in voting to the military and individuals who are medically unable to go to the polls. Everyone else would be required to show up in person, present documentation, and vote. The Act would not only prevent illegal aliens from voting but would also reduce voter fraud, much of which is tied to mail-in voting, and help reduce the casting of multiple votes by the same person.

It seems like common sense that, since voting is a right reserved for citizens, proof of citizenship should be a requirement. The 2020 election was one of the most contested in history, with much of the controversy associated with expanded mail-in voting, which allowed tens of millions of able-bodied people to send votes by post. These ballots could have been lost or otherwise manipulated, and the process effectively turned Election Day into election week, with final results coming days later.

The Commission on Federal Election Reform warned that voting by mail is “likely to increase the risks of fraud,” that “absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud,” and that “vote-buying schemes are far more difficult to detect when citizens vote by mail.” The MIT Election Data and Science Lab has also noted that even scholars who argue fraud is generally rare agree that fraud with mail-in voting appears more frequent than with in-person voting.

Democrats claim that the bill would disenfranchise poor people, Black people, other minorities, and women. This claim hinges largely on the belief that people in these groups do not have both identification and proof of citizenship. Research claims that around 21 million Americans do not have documents proving their citizenship readily available, and 2.6 million Americans lack government-issued photo ID of any kind.

However, these numbers need further analysis. It may be that 2.6 million lack a photo ID, but there is no indication that they also lack a birth certificate as proof of citizenship. Many of these individuals may only need to obtain one document in order to vote.

Thirty-six states already require voters to present identification to vote at the polls on Election Day. Twenty-four of those states require photo identification, while twelve accept non-photo identification. The remaining fourteen states do not generally require voters to present identification to vote. Therefore, unless the 2.6 million without ID are living in those 14 states with no ID requirements, they are not currently voting.

The claim regarding the 21 million figure comes from a 2023 survey of 2,386 U.S. citizens conducted by the polling firm SSRS, which reported a margin of error of ±2.6 percent. Extrapolating from 2,386 respondents to a national figure of 21 million, representing roughly 9 percent of the entire voting-age citizen population, is standard survey methodology. However, the margin of error of ±2.6 percent applies to the percentage finding, not the raw population extrapolation.

The actual uncertainty in the 21 million figure is therefore considerably larger than the ±2.6 percent suggests, and the conclusion could be off by millions. In layman’s terms, the fact that the sample size is much smaller than the population it represents is a significant weakness of the survey. As a result, the findings should not be treated as definitively accurate.

Additionally, the Democrats and the mainstream media have intentionally misrepresented the results. They left out this phrase, “readily available.” The survey asked respondents whether they had documents proving citizenship “readily available,” not whether they possessed them at all. The Brennan Center itself acknowledges the documents “might be in the home of another family member or in a safety deposit box.”

Claims that the SAVE America Act is racist are nonsense because people of all races would be required to show identification and proof of citizenship.

Claims that it is misogynistic or disenfranchises women are similarly false, as everyone must show the same documents.

Claims that Republicans want to rig elections by keeping poor people from voting are also wrong, because there are more Republicans than Democrats earning below the median income level.

And as for preventing married women from voting, Republican women are more likely to marry a man and change their name than are Democrat women.

So, in the end, the only people who will be barred from voting will be illegal aliens, fraudsters, and people who value the right to vote so little that they cannot be bothered to obtain proper identification.

The post Schumer Is Wrong, The SAVE America Act Does Not Disenfranchise Anyone appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.