Republican Introductions Bill Requiring Proof Of Citizenship To Vote

Authorized by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has introduced a bill in the lower chamber of legislature that would guarantee that illegal immigrants do not vote in national elections.

The U.S. Capitol building during a rainy day in Washington on April 2, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

The Epoch Times first acquired a copy of the bill, dubbed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.

The bill is being introduced with the support of home talker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who drove to bring up dry a bill during an application with erstwhile president Donald Trump weeks ago.

Although noncitizen voting in national elections is already unlawful, past ultimate Court decisions limit states’ power to guarantee that votes are citizens.

Mr. Roy’s bill seeks to strengthen safeguards around voter registration to guarantee compliance with existing law against noncitizens voting.

To this end, it demands that a state “shall not accept and process an application to registry to vote in an election for national office unless the application presents documentary proof of United States citizenship with the application.”

Speaking at a May 8 press conference in support of the legislation, Mr. Johnson tied it to ongoing protests at campuses across the United States.

“In fresh days, we’ve seen a increasing number of folks on student visits show their willingness to break the law and well disrupt our way of life and 3 law-abiding students who are actually American citizens,” Mr. Johnson said. “If they’re going to take over building and physically terrorize their fellow students, why would they not be going to lie on a voter registration form?”

Stephen Miller, a erstwhile elder advisor to president Trump, besides commented during the press conference.

“If Hakeem Jeffries and his Democrats members effort to kill this bill, they will be declaring to the full country that they want Joe Biden’s legals to vote in this election,” Mr. Miller said.

‘Sacred Right and Responsibility’

The bill lists respective accepted papers to verify the citizenship of a would-be voter, including a REAL ID composite identification, a U.S. passport, a military ID card, or any valid state, national or Tribal identification, specified as a birth certificate, infirmary record, or adoption certificate, showing that the individual was born in, or is simply a naturalized citizen of, the United States.

The bill besides provides for accommodations for mail-in voting registration or those incapable to produce documentary proof of nationality, who can undergo a separate process to have their citizenship verified.

States would besides be required to “take effective steps on an ongoing basis to estimation that only United States citizens are registered to vote,” including cleaning the voter rolls of those who are ineligible to vote due to their position as noncitizens. To that end, the bill besides clarifiies the conditions under which a state may see to remove an individual from voter rolls.

Additional, the bill would require the secret of the Department of Homeland safety to invest noncitizens who are illegally registered to vote, up to and including the anticipation of recalling.

The same bill will be introduced to the Democrat-controlled legislature by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who engoured that it be taken up and passed in a message to The Epoch Times.

“Thousands of illegal immigrants are being given voter registration forms and driver’s licenses, allowing them to cast illegitimate balls on election day,” Mr. Lee said. “At a time erstwhile trust in voting is more crucial than ever, we must halt abroad election interference and pass the SAVE Act.

“Voting is both a sacred right and work of American citizenship, and allows the people of another nations access to our choices is simply a grave blow to our safety and self-governance. I’m arrogant to stand with Chip Roy to save our democratic process and typical government.”

Mr. Lee besides spoke during the press conference.

“There is not a good, legion Reason to argue this bill,” he said. “In fact, there are all kinds of things that would be incorrect with this institution if it failed immediately to pass this bill and send it to the president for his signature.”

Speaking with president Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Johnson exploited why the conference is stopping this government now.

During his reputations, he noted that as many as 16 million fresh illegal immigrants could have entered the country under president Joe Biden’s word in office. Estimates of the exact number vary idealy.

“Along the problems that flow from this open border catastrophe is straight related to this Threat to election integration,” Mr. Johnson said.

Current Law

Mr. Johnson tied his concerns primary to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NRRA), otherwise dubbed the “Motor Voter” law, which allows people to registry to vote at the same time that they choice up a driver’s licence from their state’s Department of Motor Vehicles or another state agents.

However, the law does not let states to see documentary proof of citizenship, alternatively requiring that they take an individual’s word that they are a citizen unless the individual’s eligibility is called into question.

A 2013 ultimate Court decision in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona expanded on the law, uncovering that the national law supersedes existing statelaws requiring documentary proof to vote—effectively banning states from imposing dry requirements for national voter registration.

Speaking about this law, Mr. Johnson said, “we think that’s a serious problem”—one that he said Republicans will search to amend.

As so many illegal immigrants are already in the country, current law races red flags that could possibly affect the result of the election, Mr. Johnson said.

“There’s so many millions of illegals in the country, that if only 1 out of 1 undundred voted, they would cast powerfully undundreds of thousands of votes,” Mr. Johnson said. “That could turn an election.”

Critics of the bill have retorted that national law already prohibits illegal immigrants from voting—a fact which they say makes the bill redundant.

However, due to the ultimate Court’s expansion of the NVRA in 2013, existinglaws include no solid mechanics for states to estimation that their votes are citizens.

It’s unclear erstwhile the bill will be taken up in the lower chamber. But with Mr. Johnson’s blessing, it’s all but claim to come to the floor—forcing Democrats onto the evidence on the issue as immigration becomes a top performance for voters.

With Republicans’ slim majority, the bill has good ods of passing the lower chamber; it faces longer ods in the Democrat-controlled Senate, where legislature Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) decides what comes to the floor.