The Biden White House announced Monday it is opposing a GOP bill that would mandate proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act was crafted to keep jurisdictions like Washington, D.C., and Boston from allowing non-citizens to vote, canceling out the votes cast by Americans.
“This bill would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but it would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls,” the White House statement reads.
The bill’s author, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), says it merely “requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. Democrats will oppose it this week – because they WANT non-citizens, including illegals, to vote.”
Biden’s announcement comes after House Democratic leaders already announced they were going to “whip against” the bill, opposing the requirement that a birth certificate or passport would be necessary when registering to vote for the first time.
Republicans, on the other hand, support the measure, as do advocates for increased border security and immigration control.
“This is another case of the Democrat leadership asking its rank and file members, dozens of whom are in vulnerable seats, to walk the plank on a vote,” Jessica Vaughan with the Center for Immigration Studies told NHJournal.
“Why? First, to appease the extreme, open borders wing of the party, which craves the erasure of any distinction between citizens and new migrants. Second, even though having to show proof of citizenship is seen as a reasonable requirement by most Americans, most Democrat politicians are loathe to give up their obsolete talking point that Republicans want to take us back to the poll tax days to deny suffrage to Blacks.
“It looks to me like Rep. Katherine Clark knows that many of her members do not want to be seen voting against reasonable measures to preserve the integrity of voting, and knows how that will upset the Squad and its patrons in leadership, so that’s why she needs to start whipping hard,” Vaughan added.
What will New Hampshire’s two Congressional Democrats do? Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas declined to respond to requests for comment.
