Voter ID Passes House But There’s A Catch, Say Critics
A majority of House and Senate Republicans have been trying to pass legislation that 75-80 percent of the American people on both sides of the aisle want, but a year later, it still hasn’t reached President Trump’s desk.
Of course, we’re talking about the SAVE America Act, with its provisions for federal voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements as election-integrity upgrades.
On Wednesday, the House passed legislation to implement voter identification requirements ahead of the midterm elections by attaching the measure to a separate bill that would also restrict members of Congress from trading individual stocks.
But here’s the catch: The Voter ID Act, included as part of the Stop Insider Trading Act, faces long odds in the Senate, where it would require 60 votes to advance.
Nevertheless, the House approved the package largely along party lines on Wednesday, July 22, by a vote of 232-198.
The legislation, introduced in part in response to President Donald Trump’s call for Congress to adopt key provisions of the controversial SAVE America Act, may not become law.
Even so, it is expected to shape the midterm election debate by highlighting issues such as congressional ethics, stock trading, election integrity, and voter identification.
Again, according to recent polling, the vast majority of Americans want voter ID, making it extremely frustrating for them and the president over Congress’s inability to get it done.
Republicans have accused Democrats of opposing what they describe as common-sense election reforms that enjoy broad public support. Thirteen Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the bill.
Most Democrats, however, opposed the legislation. Critics, including Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., argued that Republicans used a legislative “trick” to advance provisions they said would significantly undermine mail-in voting, USA Today reported.
“Make no mistake; this is a trap,” Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-Rhode Island, said on the House floor.
“This bill is to make it harder for eligible Americans to vote, and the Republican leadership is trying to trick us into supporting it by calling it a congressional stock trading ban,” he falsely claimed.
It is insanely easy to obtain an ID from any number of government entities, and in most cases, the ID is cost-free.
Republicans argued that a controversy that emerged this week in New Jersey underscored the need to pass the legislation.
The state’s governor attributed the mistaken addition of approximately 6,600 non-U.S. citizens to the voter rolls to a programming error at the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.
USA Today claimed that about 400 of those non-citizens voted, but it’s not clear where the outlet came up with that number.
USA Today also claimed that the addition of the 6,600 non-citizens was due to a “software error,” but the software company, France-based IDEMIA, has since denied those claims and laid the blame squarely on New Jersey officials.
“Voter ID ensures the sanctity of our elections and ensures confidence by the American people in our elections,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-New York.
“The American people should watch how every single member votes on this bill.”
The Stop Insider Trading Act, which was combined with the voter ID legislation, would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children from purchasing individual stocks while in office.
However, the bill would not require lawmakers to divest any stocks they already own. A separate bipartisan proposal, the Restore Trust in Congress Act, would go further by requiring members of Congress to sell their existing individual stock holdings.
Rep. Bryan Steil, a Republican from Wisconsin who introduced the recently passed bill, stated that opponents of the legislation presented conflicting arguments.
“Some the arguments made today are what I call the Goldilocks argument: The bill doesn’t do enough, or the bill does too much,” he said on the House floor.
