Of the increasingly limited issues one might think the majority of Congress members could agree on, one would think that requiring citizenship to vote might still be one. Alas, it appears it is not. The House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act Wednesday afternoon — but only five Democrats voted in favor of the measure.
Advertisement
I guess we’re at that point where partisanship trumps even the most axiomatic concepts. The final vote tally was 221-198. The primary talking point of opposition to the measure appears to be, “But that (non-citizen voting), like, hardly ever happens.”
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration, a proposal Republicans have prioritized as an election-year talking point even as research shows noncitizens illegally registering and casting ballots in federal elections is exceptionally rare.
The legislation, approved largely along partisan lines but with five Democrats voting in favor, is unlikely to advance through the Democratic-led Senate. The Biden administration also says it’s strongly opposed because there are already safeguards to enforce the law against noncitizen voting, but stopped short of saying it would veto the measure if it came to his desk.
Advertisement
I’d like to pause a moment here and note something: Do “administrations” typically veto bills? Or is that presidents? (I just thought that an interesting choice of words in light of recent events calling into question who exactly is running the show in the Oval Office these days.)
UPDATED: RNC Platform Committee Adopts Slimmed-Down Party Platform,Eliminates Two Major Points
No ID Necessary: Biden Admin Opposes Bill Requiring Proof of Citizenship to Vote
The likelihood that the measure won’t get past the Democrat-held Senate notwithstanding, House Speaker Mike Johnson praised its passage in the House.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, a key backer of the bill, said in a news conference earlier this week that the Democratic opposition means many Democrats “want illegals to participate in our federal elections; they want them to vote.”
During a speech Wednesday, he called the vote a “generation-defining moment.”
“If just a small percentage, a fraction of a fraction of all those illegals that Joe Biden has brought in here to vote, if they do vote, it wouldn’t just change one race,” he said. “It might potentially change all of our races.”
Johnson also posted a statement regarding the SAVE Act’s passage on X, noting that with this vote, members of Congress are now on the record regarding their stance on noncitizen voting:
Advertisement
Today, 198 House Democrats voted against preventing illegal aliens from voting in American elections. Over the past four years, Joe Biden has welcomed millions upon millions of illegals into the country, knowing that noncitizens only have to check a box to vote in a federal election.
We have long known this was an intentional effort to turn them into voters, and now the American people know where every member of Congress stands on this critically important issue. House Republicans believe that only Americans should vote in American elections. House Democrats have now proven they believe that illegal aliens should vote in American elections.