Ahead of vote, former WA Sec. of State Wyman calls the SAVES Act a ‘states’ rights issue’

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, is set for a vote in the U.S. House Thursday, April 3. The act would require individuals to prove they are citizens before they can legally vote.

Republicans have defended the measure as necessary to restore public confidence in elections. Democrats argue that voting in federal elections by non-citizens is already illegal and can result in felony charges and deportation.

Voting rights groups have expressed concerns that the requirement could disenfranchise people. An estimated 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, do not have proof of citizenship readily available, according to a 2023 report by the Brennan Center for Justice and other groups.

On March 25, Trump signed a sweeping executive action to overhaul elections in the U.S., including requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and demanding that all ballots be received by Election Day.

The order says the U.S. has failed “to enforce basic and necessary election protections” and calls on states to work with federal agencies to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes. It threatens to pull federal funding from states where election officials don’t comply.

Trump’s long history railing against election processes

The move, which is likely to face swift challenges because states have broad authority to set their own election rules, is consistent with Trump’s long history of criticizing election processes. He has often claimed elections are being rigged, even before the results are known, and has waged battles against certain voting methods, following his loss in the 2020 election to Democrat and former President Joe Biden, when he falsely blamed it on widespread fraud.

“This is still a states’ rights issue, and we can’t lose sight of that,” Former Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman told the “Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio Wednesday. “Just because the President writes an executive order, it does not necessarily mean legally that these changes are going to take place because they’re going to be challenged in court.”

“Women who are already registered to vote, and men who have changed their name, are OK. I think it’s for the people going forward,” Wyman said. “How do you prove to the voter registration person that you’re who you say you are and that you are a U.S. citizen?”

The EO is ‘not just misguided — it is immoral and illegal’

Trump’s order directs federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, and the State Department, to share with election officials federal data that could help them identify noncitizens.

It also noted that the attorney general should “prioritize enforcement of federal election integrity laws” in states that don’t share information about suspected election crimes with the federal government.

The order aims to require votes to be “cast and received” by Election Day and that federal funding should be conditional on state compliance. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, currently 18 states and Puerto Rico accept mail-in ballots received after Election Day as long as they are postmarked on or before that date.

Trump’s order is likely to face legal challenges, given that the Constitution gives authority over elections to the states. While Congress has the power to regulate voting — and has done so to pass laws such as the Voting Rights Act — the Constitution makes clear that states have primary authority to set the “times, places, and manner” for elections.

Colorado’s Democratic Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, called the order an “unlawful” weaponization of the federal government and said Trump is “trying to make it harder for voters to fight back at the ballot box.”

Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, who is the ranking member of the House committee that oversees elections, said the executive order “is not just misguided — it is immoral and illegal.”

Changing voting methods

The executive branch does have “some authority” over elections, according to Justin Levitt, a constitutional law expert and former White House senior policy adviser during the Biden administration.

Levitt said that some federal agencies provide election support, including the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which distributes federal grant money to states and runs a voluntary certification program for voting systems. In addition, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency helps election officials protect their systems.

Former President Biden issued an executive order in 2021 directing federal agencies to take steps to boost voter registration, which garnered complaints from Republicans who called it federal overreach. Trump has since rescinded that order.

Trump’s order calls on the Election Assistance Commission to amend voting system guidelines to protect election integrity, including guidance that voting systems should not use a ballot that uses a barcode or QR code in the vote counting process. It said the commission should condition the funding it distributes to states on those new guidelines.

Virtually all in-person voters in Georgia, as well as voters in several other states, use voting machines with large touchscreens to record their votes. The machines then print a paper ballot with a human-readable summary of the voter’s selections and a QR code that is read by a scanner to count the votes.

It is not entirely clear how the executive order would affect Georgia and the other jurisdictions that use these machines. Representatives of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger did not respond Tuesday evening to messages seeking comment on this matter.

Raffensperger issued a statement thanking Trump for the executive order, calling it a “great first step for election integrity reform nationwide.”

Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House committee that oversees elections, said the order is a “welcome action to secure our elections and prevent foreign influence.”

Mike Lindell, a Trump ally who spreads election conspiracies and who wants to ban voting systems in favor of hand-counting ballots, fundraised off the news on Tuesday, saying in an email it will fix our “sick elections.”

Trump’s executive order comes as the Republican National Committee launched a massive effort to probe voter registration list maintenance nationwide. The committee sent public records requests this week asking for documents related to voter roll list maintenance in 48 states and Washington, D.C., asserting that the public should know how states are removing ineligible people from voter rolls, including dead people and non-citizens.

Trump referenced election fraud as he signed the order Tuesday, when he said, “This will end it, hopefully.” He added that more election actions would be taken in the coming weeks.

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Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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