Geoff Bennett:
President Trump vowed this week not to sign any bills into law until a sweeping new voting bill is passed.
Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, takes a closer look at its prospects.
Liz Landers:
Early Sunday morning, hours after returning from Delaware, where he took part in the solemn observance of the return of remains of six U.S. soldiers killed, President Trump posted about the SAVE America Act.
Quote:
“It supersedes everything else,” he wrote, and — quote — “must go to the front of the line. I as president will not sign other bills until this is passed.”
President Donald Trump:
And, perhaps most importantly, I’m asking you to approve the SAVE America Act.
(Cheering)
Liz Landers:
If passed, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America, Act would transform voting in this country in two major ways. It would require all Americans to prove U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, and it would require all voters to show an I.D. when voting in person or by mail.
Voters submitting absentee mail ballots would have to provide a photocopy of their I.D. The bill would also require states to frequently review voter rolls and remove any noncitizens. And it would mandate states share voter registration data with the federal government, which most states have refused to do, a move backed by several federal judges.
President Donald Trump:
We don’t want people that aren’t citizens of our country voting. We don’t want people that aren’t studied, and we don’t want people that can’t love our country voting in our elections. So it’s very simple.
Liz Landers:
But it’s not that simple. By any definition, the number of ballots cast illegally and by noncitizens in America elections is incredibly small.
David Becker, Executive Director, Center for Election Innovation and Research: We know our elections are more secure than ever. We know we have more protections and checks and balances against fraud than ever. And we also know that this administration has gone out hunting for fraud with all of the tools of the federal government over the last year, and they have found virtually none.
Liz Landers:
A study by the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security found that, of the 49.5 million voter registrations that were checked for the 2024 election, about 10,000 cases were referred for additional investigation of noncitizenship. That’s roughly 0.02 percent of names processed.
In Georgia, a 2024 audit of its 8.2 million registered voters found only 20 noncitizens who had registered.
Rick Hasen, UCLA School of Law: If you’re a noncitizen and you sign under penalty of perjury that you are a citizen and you’re eligible to vote, you’re committing a felony which could render you not only deportable, but also get you jail time. And for what? For — to have one vote. So it’s really not the way that elections are stolen.
Liz Landers:
And Americans are not overly concerned about the chances of voter fraud. In our new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll out today, 66 percent of Americans are confident their state or local government will run fair elections in November, which is down from 76 percent in October 2024; 33 percent of adults believe the biggest threat to safe and secure elections is voter fraud.
Republicans are much more concerned about this than Democrats.
Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary:
You need an I.D. to go and purchase alcohol. You need an I.D. to go to the library and check out a book. And so the president thinks you should have an I.D. to vote in our nation’s elections.
Liz Landers:
But requiring I.D. documents like passports and birth certificates could disenfranchise millions of people.
Rick Hasen:
If you’re poor, you’re moving a lot, you’re say a student who’s gone away to college, you have changed your name because you have gotten married or for some other reasons, all of those people would have more difficulty obtaining these documents.
Liz Landers:
About half of Americans don’t have passports and many do not have a copy of their birth certificate. The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that more than 21 million Americans lack ready access to those documents.
And voting rights advocates say the SAVE America Act requirements could disproportionately affect older Americans and low-income voters, another concern, newly married voters. A 2023 Pew survey found that more than 80 percent of women and 5 percent of men change or hyphenate their names after marriage, meaning their passport, birth certificate and other documents may not align, requiring additional paperwork to register to vote.
Tammy Patrick, National Association for Election Administrators: I don’t think there’s anyone that wants ineligible voters to participate in our democracy, full stop. But what we do want to make sure is everyone who is eligible doesn’t have obstacles that they have to overcome in order to participate.
Liz Landers:
When it comes to federal oversight of elections, President Trump’s outside allies are also pressuring him to declare a national emergency around elections. We asked the president about this recently.
Are you considering a national emergency around the midterm election?
President Donald Trump:
Who told you that?
Liz Landers:
There’s been reporting that there’s an executive order, proposed executive order about this. Are you looking at that? Are you considering that?
President Donald Trump:
No.
(Crosstalk)
Liz Landers:
The president has also said he regrets not using the National Guard in 2020 to seize election equipment. Our poll asked Americans how they feel about the National Guard around voting sites. A slim majority of Americans oppose National Guard’s members around polling locations. But 46 percent support this idea.
Democrats and independents overwhelmingly oppose the idea, but 73 percent of Republicans are in favor of having the National Guard monitor voting locations.
Are you surprised that 46 percent of Americans do support the idea of having National Guard’s people outside of voting locations?
David Becker:
I was surprised at that. Look, it is illegal. I,Is against federal law for troops or armed men — that’s the term in the statute — to appear at any voting location. That is 18-USC-592. And hopefully the American people understand it. It is part of our culture that we vote in a safe and secure environment.
Man:
Mr. President.
Man:
Majority Leader.
Liz Landers:
The Senate is poised to take up the bill next week, where it is expected to fail.
For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Liz Landers.
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