(Daily Signal)—Senate Republicans were unable to pass the SAVE America Act this year, but voters in several states have the chance to approve ballot measures implementing its provisions.
The SAVE America Act would require photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Measures in Arizona and California combine a voter ID requirement with a prohibition on noncitizen voting or strengthened safeguards against it.
Ballot measures in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, South Dakota, and West Virginia would ban noncitizen voting. Meanwhile, the battleground states of Nevada, North Carolina, and Ohio will vote only on voter ID measures.
State bans on noncitizen voting could carry greater importance after a federal judge ruled earlier this month that a 1996 federal ban on noncitizen voting was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge David S. Leibowitz for the Southern District of Florida, appointed by President Joe Biden, asserted in his opinion that only states can set voter qualifications.
“A federal judge wrote the federal prohibition on noncitizen voting is unconstitutional. So we need to do this,” Kansas state Rep. Pat Proctor, chairman of the state’s House Elections Committee, told the Daily Signal.
Since 2012, voter ID ballot measures have succeeded in 10 states and failed in three, according to Ballotpedia. Since 2018, voters in 15 states have approved citizen-only voting measures, and none have failed, according to Ballotpedia.
“This has passed in every state where it has been on the ballot. We don’t expect this year to be any different,” Jack Tomczak, vice president of outreach for Americans for Citizen Voting, told the Daily Signal of the ballot measures on citizen voting.
Tomczak added that the organization anticipated the federal judge’s ruling and said it actually has merit because states run elections.
“It certainly puts the issue top of mind to go vote,” Tomczak said. “Ultimately, we’d like to see an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The SAVE Act had so many things in it that it gave some in Congress an easy out to vote against it. A clean amendment on only citizens voting would put members on the record for yes or no.”
Ballot initiatives in blue states face uphill battles but could be enormous achievements if successful. The California voter ID measure doesn’t mandate proof of citizenship to vote, but it does require election officials to “use best efforts to verify citizenship attestations using government data.”
“Colorado and California are once-in-a-generation opportunities,” Ken Cuccinelli, chairman of the Heritage Election Transparency Initiative, told the Daily Signal of the ballot measures.
“Unfortunately, the powers that be in those states are making the ballot language as unattractive as possible,” said Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and former acting deputy Homeland Security secretary.
Supporters of the California measure initially submitted the ballot language, “Establishes additional voter identification and citizenship verification requirements.” However, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, changed the language to say: “Prohibits citizens from voting unless they present government-issued identification.”
Some states would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, while still others would just prevent local jurisdictions from opening voting to noncitizens. Of the ballot measures banning noncitizen voting, all but Alaska’s would enshrine the ban in their state constitutions.
Supporters of some state ballot initiatives welcome a comparison to the SAVE America Act, while others do not.
“A lot of opponents want to conflate the two,” Proctor said of the Kansas measure. “This does not require documentary proof of citizenship. The way our constitution is written, it says citizens can vote but is silent on noncitizens. In California, Maryland, and Vermont, certain municipalities allow noncitizens to vote. … It would not surprise me if Topeka and Lawrence allowed noncitizen voting.”
Greg Blackie, deputy director of policy for the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, which backs Proposition 144, said it’s a “totally fair comparison” to the SAVE America Act.
The measure would also ban foreign funding of elections, plug loopholes in the voter ID law to require only government-issued identification, and grant voters the option to have their ballots tabulated at their voting location rather than at a central location. The measure has polled at about 60%, Blackie said.
“We’ve seen millions in out-of-state and foreign contributions,” Blackie said.
However, Pinny Sheoran, the state advocacy chairwoman for the League of Women Voters of Arizona, argues that the proposed amendment would “end mail-in voting.”
“This would require when turning in the mail ballot presenting ID with the mail in ballot and providing documents every time you receive a ballot,” Sheoran told the Daily Signal. “It doesn’t specify what forms of ID in the constitutional amendment. The legislature would decide.”
She added that the state already bans noncitizens from voting and that the measure “is just posturing.”
