Authoritarianism is not down the street or around the corner. It is here right now. I have been ringing the alarm bells about the 10 ways Trump is entrenching his authoritarian power. The tenth and most dangerous way is by rigging the November election, which is exactly what the SAVE Act will do.
Trump says the SAVE Act is about stopping non-citizens from voting. That’s not true. It is entirely about stopping citizens from voting.
We know it is not about voter fraud because repeated investigations by law enforcement, news organizations, universities, and elected officials from both parties have found that it is more likely you will get struck by lightning that it is for a non-citizen to vote.
Instead, the SAVE Act rigs the next election by making it much harder for citizens to register and vote using three strategies.
First, to register to vote, the SAVE Act requires people to prove their citizenship in person using either a passport or a birth certificate combined with another form of photo identification.
These requirements are designed to create new barriers for many groups of citizens. Sixty-nine million married women, and others who have changed their names, will not be able to use their birth certificates because their names no longer match. Tribal members and college students will no longer be able to use their tribal or student IDs because those no longer qualify. Less affluent voters will have to pay what is effectively a modern poll tax for a passport or a copy of their birth certificate. And rural and tribal voters will have to travel hundreds of miles to reach the nearest elections office to register in person.
Second, the SAVE Act creates a national voter database controlled by the Trump Administration.
Under the bill, Oregon and every other state is required to submit their voter lists to the Trump Administration to run through the Department of Homeland Security’s database. If it flags your name, you will be forced to provide proof of citizenship in person or be purged from the voter rolls. But, to be able to prove your citizenship, it can take months to get a new passport. So, if the Trump Administration purges your name just days before the election, you will not be able to re-register in time.
Third, the SAVE Act destroys vote-by-mail.
Oregon has been a fully vote-by-mail state since 1998. Under this bill, Oregon voters will have to enclose a copy of their ID in the envelope when they mail in their ballot. This would destroy the secret ballot and invite corruption, coercion, and retribution.
But Trump’s real goal is to kill vote-by-mail entirely. Why? To make it easier to manipulate voting. On Election Day, authorities can suppress the vote by moving polling places, understaffing them, providing broken voting machines, and intimidating people waiting in line.
It is clear that the only thing the SAVE Act will save is Trump’s strongman state. Trump said so himself. On March 9, he told House Republicans that the bill “will guarantee the midterms” for them and “every election for a long time.” That is why he refuses to sign any other legislation until this bill passes.
The SAVE Act is about stopping citizens from voting to rig the next election. Voting is the beating heart of our “We, The People” republic. The SAVE Act stabs a knife through that beating heart. We must not let that happen.
Democrat Jeff Merkley has served as U.S. Senator for Oregon since 2009.
