By George Lehman
Boston University News Service
President Donald Trump called on Congress during Tuesday’s State of the Union address to pass legislation that proposes new identification requirements for voters, falling ahead of the midterm elections later this year.
“I’m asking you to approve the SAVE America Act to stop illegal aliens and other unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections,” Trump said. “That cheating is rampant in our elections.”
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known as the SAVE America Act, requires voters to provide proof of citizenship along when registering to vote in federal elections. If passed, the bill would also require voters to have valid photo identification in order to cast their ballot.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act two weeks ago with a 218-213 vote, falling mostly along party lines. The House approved a previous version of the bill in April that failed to pass in the U.S. Senate late last year.
“Ensuring the integrity of elections is an essential issue,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a press conference after the bill passed the lower chamber for a second time. “It’s essential to maintaining our constitutional republic.”
During Tuesday’s address, Trump also said there should be “no more crooked mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.” This comes after the FBI executed a search warrant in late January at an election hub in Fulton Country, Georgia that sought to obtain records regarding ballots from the 2020 presidential election, according to a search warrant affidavit filed on Feb 10.
Trump also said those who don’t want to implement the act “want to cheat.”
“Their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat and we’re going to stop it,” the president said.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani received a mention during Tuesday evening’s address as well, with Trump criticizing the city’s sanitation department for requiring two forms of identification and a Social Security card to be an emergency snow shoveler despite not needing to show identification to vote.
“[He] wants them to shovel snow, but if you apply for that job you need to show two original forms of ID and a social security card, yet they don’t want identification for the greatest privilege of them all, voting in America,” Trump said.
Despite Republicans’ stating the SAVE Act protects election integrity, congressional Democrats have raised concerns about the bill making it more difficult for Americans to vote, calling the act “voter suppression.”
“The SAVE America Act will only make it harder for millions of American citizens — women, rural voters, seniors — to vote,” Sen. Michael Bennet, D-C.O., wrote in post to X during the State of the Union address.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a hearing that House Republicans have focused on “federalizing Jim Crow” by supporting the SAVE Act, and that the goal of the act is the same in “disenfranchising American citizens and making it harder for eligible people to vote.”
Schumer added that the bill is “dead on arrival in the Senate.”
The SAVE America Act now lies in the hands of the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats and Democrats hold 47. At least 60 votes are needed for the bill to reach the president’s desk.
