Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized the SAVE America Act in an op-ed in The New York Times, saying the proposed law would include “a system for purging eligible voters from the electorate — voters who are disproportionately likely to vote against Republicans.”
His op-ed comes as senators are debating the bill, which proposes an overhaul of election law, including requiring photo identification to vote and proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The bill, which is a top priority for Trump, doesn’t appear to have enough support to pass the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Schumer wrote that the alleged purge “would involve running the voter rolls through an algorithm that would ostensibly root out noncitizens — a program overhauled by Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has already proved dangerously unreliable.” He said that in a trial run in Boone County, Missouri, “more than half of the voters flagged as ineligible were, in fact, eligible American citizens.”
Schumer wrote that the bill would not require that voters are notified if they are taken off voter rolls, and he said that millions of Americans do not have the required documentation to prove citizenship under the SAVE America Act.
In order to register to vote, the SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship, such as a U.S. passport or a driver’s license paired with proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate.
“They would instead have to produce a passport (which only about half of Americans have) or a birth certificate (which many cannot easily access),” Schumer said. “For a married woman who changed her surname, and whose married name doesn’t match her birth certificate, even a birth certificate may not be enough.”
