SAVE America Act
In 2000 Vladimir Putin won a free and fair election in Russia. By manipulating Russia’s laws and constitution with the help of a compliant legislature he has established himself as the unquestioned dictator of a now undemocratic state. In 2010 Viktor Orban won a free and fair election in Hungary. We will see on April 12 if he has cemented himself as the authoritarian ruler of Hungary’s now “illiberal democracy.”
Can it happen in the U.S.A.?
President Trump is insisting that the Senate change its rules to pass the SAVE America Act. This proposed legislation, although billed as a ‘voter ID’ law, includes four provisions that would enable the Republican Party to solidify its power in a one-party authoritarian state. These provisions are: 1) proof of citizenship to register is limited to birth certificate, passport, military ID, or tribal ID; 2) states must provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with complete voter registration information; 3) DHS with the cooperation of other federal agencies (e.g. IRS and Social Security) must create an eligible voter database; 4) states must regularly purge their voter registration rolls using the federal voter database.
The federal voter database has proven to be unreliable. Furthermore, an unscrupulous DHS armed with complete voter registration information could bias the database to favor voters likely to favor Republicans and against voters likely to favor Democrats. Required purges of the voter rolls would require those not in the federal database to re-register with documentation that may not be easily accessible. Voters may not even know that they have been purged, finding out only on Election Day. The SAVE Act is a blueprint for eliminating free and fair elections in the United States. It can happen here.