The House on Wednesday passed a strict voter identification measure that would require proof of American citizenship to vote and allow the Department of Homeland Security to seize voter rolls in any state, as Republicans muscled through a measure that is doomed in the Senate but that amplifies President Trump’s groundless charges of rigged elections.
The bill, fast-tracked through the House just days after Mr. Trump called to nationalize voting to combat what he claimed was rampant voter fraud, passed along party lines on a vote of 218 to 213, with just one Democrat, Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, voting with Republicans in favor of it.
It had no chance of passage in the Senate, where one Republican has already expressed major concerns about it and the majority leader, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, has said he will not lower the 60-vote filibuster threshold to try to ram it through that chamber on a simple majority vote over Democratic opposition.
Still, it gave Republicans an opportunity to trumpet Mr. Trump’s charges that Democrats were trying to mobilize masses of undocumented voters to sway elections in their favor. That narrative has helped sow distrust before midterm elections in which the G.O.P. is in danger of suffering significant losses.
And it may also lay the groundwork for Republicans to potentially contest closely divided congressional elections should they lose in November.
On Wednesday, Republicans argued that the legislation was more necessary than ever because of the millions of immigrants who entered the country without authorization while former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was in office.
“Cheating is the only path to victory,” said Representative Mary Miller, Republican of Illinois, adding that Democrats’ “goal” was to replace the votes of citizens with those of undocumented immigrants.
Representative Chip Roy, the Texas Republican who was the lead sponsor of the bill, ticked off examples of Mexican and Salvadoran nationals indicted by the Justice Department on voter fraud charges.
But studies have consistently shown little, if any, evidence that such fraud is happening on a large scale, and even the Trump administration’s own voter verification initiative has so far turned up no evidence of widespread fraud.
Democrats said the real aim of the legislation was to discourage people from exercising their right to vote or to make it difficult for them to do so.
“This is about sowing chaos and confusion,” Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, said on the House floor on Wednesday, where he compared the measure with Jim Crow-era laws that sought to make it impossible for Black Americans to vote. “You’re afraid you’re going to lose in November. Well, too bad.”
Republicans defended the bill, calling it a way to regain the trust of Americans. They said their bill would simply make it harder for noncitizens to vote — something that is already illegal — which they described as a broadly popular policy.
Trump Administration: Live Updates
Updated
- Trump orders the Pentagon to buy more coal-fired electricity.
- Democrats denounce attempt to indict lawmakers for illegal orders video.
- U.S. health officials defend rejection of Moderna’s flu vaccine.
“It is racist to imply that minority communities somehow don’t have the ability to get a photo ID,” said Representative Randy Fine, Republican of Florida.
The bill was the second attempt by House Republicans in as many years to act on Mr. Trump’s obsession with alleged mass voter fraud. Last year, the House passed the SAVE Act, a similar but narrower bill that required proof of citizenship when registering to vote. At the time, four center-leaning Democrats who represent red districts joined Republicans in supporting the legislation.
But the new bill included provisions that made even those Democrats balk. It would require voters to show proof of citizenship not only when registering to vote, but also every time they went to cast a ballot in a federal election.
Research from the Brennan Center for Justice has found that more than 21 million Americans lack easy access to documents like a birth certificate or a passport, and about half of Americans do not even have a passport.
The bill included a requirement that states share their voter rolls with the Department of Homeland Security, at a time when even some Republicans have expressed concerns about the agency’s leadership.
It would go into effect immediately, seeking to put into place new federal requirements when many states are already deep into preparations for elections that are just weeks or months away.
“They’ve gone off the cliff with this one,” Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the Washington Democrat who voted last year for the SAVE Act, said in an interview before the vote. “They’re trying to undermine what we have demonstrated is a very secure election system.”
The bill amounted to a straight call and response from the White House to Republican lawmakers who typically bend to the president’s will.
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump said the federal government should “get involved” in elections that were riddled with “corruption,” reiterating his position that it should usurp state laws by exerting control over local elections.
It followed Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts across the country to gain an edge in their battle to keep control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections. Those efforts, however, do not appear to be giving them a significant edge, and G.O.P. lawmakers and strategists are bracing for losses.
Democrats framed the Save America Act as the next attempt to subvert an election.
“Donald Trump clearly wants to nationalize the election because he knows that if there’s a free and fair election, it’s over — the House is gone,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said at a news conference earlier this week. “Republicans have adopted voter suppression as an electoral strategy.”
Mr. Jeffries also said it was “outrageous” to give D.H.S. more data about the American people at a time when ICE agents had been “brutally, viscously and violently targeting every day Americans.”
At least one Republican also has expressed serious concerns about the legislation.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said on social media that her party had long opposed federalizing elections and that she continued to do so. She warned that states would have to scramble to adhere to the new policies enshrined in the bill.
“Ensuring public trust in our elections is at the core of our democracy, but federal overreach is not how we achieve this,” Ms. Murkowski said.
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times.
The post House Passes Strict Voter ID Bill, Amplifying Trump’s Claims of Fraud appeared first on New York Times.
