Save America Act would undermine voting rights

#47 has already done more to interfere with elections and voting rights than many of his predecessors. His hypocritical claim at a staged media event on July 16 that it was China’s and Venezuela’s interference in the 2020 election that caused him to lose goes beyond the pale.  

Trump insisted he had proof of this alleged interference. Yet he offered only highly questionable “evidence” in the form of newly unclassified reports, most with heavily redacted pages. His long-debunked allegations that the 2020 election was stolen are so unbelievable that his speech was boycotted even by major corporate media outlets including ABC, NBC and CNN. 

This was the president who unleashed his MAGA supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bloody insurrection aimed at stopping Congress from approving Joe Biden’s election.

This is the president whose hand-selected Supreme Court of the United States judges recently overturned historic voter rights legislation that Black activists and their anti-racist white supporters fought for and died for over the decades. 

This is the president whose MAGA supporters’ interference in multiple states has resulted in redistricting measures intended to disenfranchise millions of Black and Brown voters. 

This is the president who refused to sign a major sweeping bill designed to address the U.S. housing crisis in protest of Congress’s failure to pass his election security legislation. 

But apparently these attacks on basic democratic rights are not enough for Trump. He has been pushing Congress to pass his Save America Act without success. And just what is in Trump’s Act?   

The current version of this legislation would require voters to provide proof of citizenship at the time of registration. And they must produce voter IDs to vote in federal elections. One accepted document would be a U.S. passport — which fewer than half of voters in the U.S. possess. Registrants who use a driver’s license would have to pair it with a birth certificate — a concern for married women and trans people who have changed their legal names. Currently, 21.3 million people — 9% of eligible voters — lack access to any of the required identification. (Brennan Center for Justice, June 2024)

Trump’s Act would ban mail-in ballots — something he uses himself to vote. This is a major concern for people with disabilities and those living abroad, including members of the military. It is also a factor affecting many voters, including MAGA supporters, who live in rural areas lacking easy access to polling places. It also runs counter to a recent SCOTUS ruling that states could count ballots that arrive after election day.

Trump also wants to include provisions unrelated to voting, including restrictions on trans women’s participation in sports and gender-affirming care for trans youth.

Millions of incarcerated people saddled with felony convictions are currently denied the right to vote. Trump’s Act will make voting more difficult for everyone, including formerly incarcerated people.

Trump’s rush to push passage of the Act is evidence that he fears that popular anger at his mishandling of the economy and widespread opposition to his renewed war on Iran will cost his party the midterms. Lacking any plan to address these crucial concerns, Trump wants to “fix” the elections in his favor — that’s the real interference that workers and oppressed people should be worried about.