According to a brand new poll, a majority of the country is either “very” or “somewhat” concerned about non-citizens voting illegally. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives have now voted not once, but twice this year to defeat the SAVE Act, which would strengthen enforcement of the law prohibiting non-citizens from voting. Citizen activists aren’t going to roll over and accept the Democrats’ opposition to this commonsense reform. Citizen activists are going to do something about it on their own.
The new Scripps News/Ipsos poll, released earlier this week, is only the most recent survey related to America’s voters and their concerns about the prospect of non-citizens voting illegally. Tea Party Patriots Action conducted its own survey in January. That survey of 1,000 general election voters, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, showed that 87 percent agree that “proof of United States citizenship should be required to register to vote in American elections”; 86 percent agree that “only United States citizens should be allowed to vote in elections for the American president, senators, and representatives”; and 83 percent agree that “proof of United States citizenship should be required to vote in American elections.”
In other words, an overwhelming majority of America’s voters believe only citizens should be allowed to vote in federal elections, and overwhelming majorities of America’s voters believe proof of citizenship should be required to register and to vote.
Of course, it’s already illegal for a non-citizen to vote. The problem is, we have no way to effectively enforce that. Because of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) – also known as “Motor Voter” – states are prohibited from verifying the citizenship status of prospective voters during the voter registration process. The only requirement regarding citizenship on a voter registration form is an attestation by the prospective voter that he or she is a citizen. As GOP Congressman Chip Roy put it at a congressional hearing earlier this month, “The primary defense against non-citizens registering to vote is a literal ‘box-checking’ exercise on a voter registration form. This is the only barrier the American people have, to ensure that only citizens vote.”
To fix that gaping hole in the system, Roy introduced H.R. 8281, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which requires states to obtain documentary proof of citizenship before adding a prospective voter to the state’s voter rolls.
Acting to address the concerns of their constituents, the members of the House GOP leadership brought the SAVE Act to the floor in July. The bill passed – and promptly went nowhere in the (Democrat-controlled) Senate. So Speaker Johnson attached the SAVE Act to the stopgap government funding bill that the House considered earlier this week, in hopes that attaching it to a “must pass” bill could boost its chances of making it through the Senate – but he could not get that bill through the House.
At least the leaders of the House tried to move legislation to address voters’ concerns. Leaders of the Senate failed to consider the legislation at all. And the White House made clear its intent to veto the legislation if, somehow, it ever did make it to the president’s desk.
Citizen activists aren’t waiting. If Washington won’t move to strengthen enforcement of the law prohibiting non-citizens from voting in federal elections, then they will take action at the state level to ensure that only citizens vote in state and local elections. That’s the thinking behind OnlyCitizens.Vote, whose leaders – Paul Jacob and Becky Arps – sat with me for an interview for my podcast this week.
Jacob is an experienced citizen activist. He was one of the leaders of the Term Limits movement three decades ago, and has used that experience adroitly to advance his current passion. Beginning six years ago, in 2018, in North Dakota, he’s been pushing at the state level to add language to state constitutions making clear that only citizens are allowed to vote. This year, eight state legislatures – in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin – referred constitutional amendments to the general election ballot to ensure only citizens vote by prohibiting the state or local governments from allowing non-citizens to vote.
By referring those measures to the general election ballot, the state legislatures are turning the matter over to the voters of their states. It will be the people who decide.
Those eight states are home to 42 million voters. If each one passes its constitutional amendment in November – as I suspect they will – it would bring to 20 the number of states that have added “only citizens vote” language to their state constitutions.
Just as importantly, it will show the politicians in Washington that when Washington won’t act, the citizenry will.
Jenny Beth Martin is Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Citizens Action.