Lane, one of four congressional staff members on the panel, said the SAVE Act will be a priority for the House this time. He acknowledged a push to consider what a voter identification requirement would look like and potentially revisit at least parts of other voting laws. Among them is a provision in the National Voter Registration Act that requires states to stop systematic cleaning of voter rolls 90 days before a federal election, a sticking point in ongoing litigation against Virginia.
It is far less clear what legislation might be able to draw the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster in the Senate, where Republicans have 53 seats. Tiffany Ge, the majority staff director for the Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stressed during the panel that federalism is fundamental to election administration, and said it’s important for states and localities to have the flexibility to do things in ways that make sense for them.
During the last Congress, McConnell was an original co-sponsor of Senate legislation that would have let states include a requirement on mail voter registration forms that applicants provide proof of citizenship, though the bill didn’t pass. That could suggest a legislative route he, at least, might support.
Speaking from the audience, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, raised several concerns about the SAVE Act, pointing out that not everyone has documents showing proof of citizenship, and said he objected to the part of the legislation that establishes criminal penalties for an election administrator who registers someone lacking the documentation. “They’re doing their best out there,” he said.
Arizona is currently the only state enforcing a requirement for voters to provide documented proof of citizenship. Other states, including New Hampshire and Louisiana, have now passed legislation requiring it, and several state legislatures are considering it or intend to do so, including in Texas and Michigan. Arizona voters who don’t provide it cannot vote in state and local elections….