It is not unreasonable for people to be concerned about voter fraud or noncitizens voting. Not because it happens at a scale that could swing an election — researchers say it is so rare as to be statistically insignificant — but because Republican leaders have been pounding on that drum for so long that some can’t help but sway to the beat.
As U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick recently reminded, more than half of Americans worry about fraud at the polls.
“We have a duty to root out the source of this distrust and restore the integrity of our democratic process,” McCormick said, speaking on the Senate floor in defense of the SAVE America Act, the GOP’s latest effort to restrict voting.
If Pennsylvania’s junior senator will allow me, I think I’ve cracked the case.
Casting doubt on election security did not begin with Donald Trump and his bombastically false claims of hacked voting machines and millions of illegal immigrants voting. It started long before that, with “traditional” Republicans like McCormick legitimizing allegations of widespread fraud.
Under President George W. Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft warned that “votes have been bought, voters intimidated and ballot boxes stuffed” at a 2002 Voting Integrity Symposium. Yet, bringing the power of the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate these allegations resulted in few prosecutions by the time Bush left office.
After 2013, when the U.S. Supreme Court removed a provision of the Voting Rights Act, thereby ending federal supervision of nine states with a history of racial discrimination, there was a slew of voting restrictions pushed by Republicans under the guise of voter integrity.
By the time Trump came along, GOP voters were more than primed to believe that an election could be stolen, with the nadir being the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Having learned no lessons from what happened, Republicans continue to stoke doubt about elections.
McCormick shamelessly used a November incident in Chester County, where independent and unaffiliated voters were left off the county’s poll books, to allege that “registered voters were turned away at the polls. And an unknown number of unverified voters cast regular ballots.”
There is no evidence that either of those claims is true.
What happened in Chester County was human error that was corrected later that day. In the meantime, anyone who wanted to vote but was not in the poll books was asked to fill out a provisional ballot that would later be verified for eligibility.
Elections are run by people, and mistakes happen. There are 3,069 counties in the U.S. in charge of administering elections. It’s a testament to the dedication of local officials that voting is as smooth and secure a process as it is.
McCormick is a smart man. He likely knows the facts. He also knows that nothing included in the SAVE America Act would have prevented what happened in Chester County.
What is included in the legislation requires people to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote and produce ID when casting a ballot. It stiffens penalties against election officials for registering voters without proof of citizenship, and forces states to submit their voter rolls to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ensure only citizens are registered.
All of that seems reasonable, but seeing as how folks like McCormick are using deception in its promotion, you will forgive me for being skeptical. I don’t buy the catastrophism coming from Democrats, either, but there are valid objections.
For example, some people who could otherwise vote do not have ready access to the documents required in the law — that’s about 20 million Americans, according to some estimates. That the proposal would take effect immediately, just in time for the midterm elections, guarantees that millions would be disenfranchised.
Information sharing with DHS is also problematic, as the tool used to identify potential noncitizen voting registration “keeps making mistakes,” according to a ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigation.
None of these issues is insurmountable. Instead of blocking legislation like the SAVE America Act, Democrats should fight to improve it.
For example, if you need documentation to exercise your rights, then that documentation should be free, and requirements should be implemented after a reasonable grace period. Any mandate should come with the funding to ensure every American has access to their birth certificate, or that every citizen can easily obtain a passport. Congress should also make Election Day a holiday, while they’re at it.
Ironically, voter suppression efforts, which traditionally fall hardest on communities of color, come from the idea that the changing face of America would turn away from Republicans. Put another way, this line of thinking suggests that as the U.S. barrels toward becoming a majority-minority nation, the GOP would be at a disadvantage.
But some high-turnout elections, including the 2024 contest that put Trump back in the White House, have shown that less frequent voters — i.e., those least likely to jump through the hoops put up by something like the SAVE America Act — back Republicans.
Instead of making up stories and assuring the long-term erosion of democracy for short-term political gain, McCormick and his GOP colleagues should partner with Democrats to make elections secure and voting easy.
