After a cycle that delivered them full power in Washington, Republicans are still pushing to change federal election law — and some Democrats are sounding a renewed alarm.
A proposal that aims to bar noncitizens from voting could disenfranchise millions of American women and serve a larger strategy, Rep. Delia Ramirez argued Tuesday.
“The SAVE act is not an election security bill,” said the Illinois Democrat at a House Administration Committee member day hearing. “It’s part of an authoritarian playbook, including the funding freeze and the persecution of diverse cities, and it takes courage and moral clarity to stand against it.”
The legislation — known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act — was marked up by the committee last Congress and passed the House, before fizzling in the Senate. It would require American voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and Democrats have lambasted the bill’s limitations on acceptable forms of identification, which they say would make it difficult for married women who have changed their last names to register to vote.
But House Republicans have identified the proposal as a priority this Congress, making it one of 12 bills they teed up for faster consideration as they adopted their new rules package in January.
In Ramirez’s eyes, it amounts to an attempt “to suppress the votes of anyone who threatens an extremist, unconstitutional, authoritarian agenda,” she told the panel. “And that includes women.”
House Administration Chair Bryan Steil pushed back, describing it as “common sense” that voters should have to prove their citizenship. …