WASHINGTON \u2014 The Republican-controlled House voted Wednesday to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election bill that President Donald Trump is pushing Congress to enact. <\/p>\n
The vote was 218-213, with Republicans unanimously voting in favor and all but one Democrat voting against it. The one Democrat voting yes was Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.<\/p>\n
The 32-page legislation<\/a> would require states to obtain documentary proof-of-citizenship \u201cin person,\u201d such as an American passport or birth certificate, from someone in order to register them to vote in a federal election.<\/p>\n The bill, which was revised from an earlier version to include new demands from Trump, also requires voters to show photo identification in order to cast a ballot in person. And it slaps new rules for mail-in ballots, requiring voters to submit a copy of an eligible ID when requesting and casting an absentee ballot.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just common sense. Americans need an ID to drive, to open a bank account, to buy cold medicine, to file government assistance,\u201d Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters. \u201cSo why would voting be any different than that?\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats say the legislation is designed to disenfranchise Americans, noting that voting by noncitizens<\/a> is already illegal and very rare. Current law requires voters to attest to their citizenship under oath, with criminal penalties for violators.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a desperate effort by Republicans to distract,\u201d House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters. \u201cThe so-called SAVE Act is not about voter identification, it is about voter suppression. And they have zero credibility on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeffries and other Democrats note that the GOP bill comes in the wake of Trump saying he wants to \u201cnationalize\u201d elections<\/a> and \u201ctake over the voting in at least \u2014 many, 15 places.\u201d That runs afoul of the Constitution, which gives states authority over the \u201cTimes, Places and Manner of holding Elections\u201d for federal office. Democrats also note that the FBI has seized ballots and voter records<\/a> from Fulton County, Georgia, as Trump continues to make false claims that he won the 2020 election.<\/p>\n Republicans point out that requiring some form of voter ID is popular. A Pew Research Center poll<\/a> last August found that 83% of U.S. adults favor \u201crequiring all voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote.\u201d That includes 71% of Democrats and 76% of Black voters, who some Democrats and liberal advocates claim would be disenfranchised by it.<\/p>\n The bill \u2014 sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah \u2014 now goes to the Senate, where it faces a daunting path. Republicans control 53 seats, and some of them are skeptical or outright opposed to the legislation.<\/p>\n