Atlanta – the US Chamber on Thursday approved the legislation requiring evidence of the documentary citizenship of the US for anyone who registers to vote, something that a group of voting has warned can deprive millions of Americans.
The requirement was the highest election union Priority for President Donald Trump and Republicans of houses who claim that it is necessary to eliminate the cases of voting of the Nucosen, which is already sporadic And as numerous state cases I showed, it is usually a mistake, not a part of the coordinated attempt to overthrow the elections. This is already illegal in accordance with federal law for people who are not American citizens to vote cards and can lead to charges of crime and deportation.
»Read more: Republican bill requiring evidence of citizenship for voting at the USA house
The Act, known as the Act on the qualification of the American voter, i.e. the Save Act, is now going to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain, because the Republicans do not have enough majority to avoid a filibuster.
Here are the key issues in the debate on the evidence of citizenship of the voting requirement:
Who had an impact if the law became the law?
If it ultimately becomes the law, the Save Act will immediately enter into force and would follow all applications for registration of voters.
“This does not affect people who are currently registered to vote,” said Rep. Bryan Steil, a Republican Wisconsin, who is in favor of the law.
Voice rights groups say that history has something more. The law would affect voters who are already registered, if they move, change their name or otherwise they have to update their registration. This was to some extent recognized by the author of the project, a republican representative of Chip Roy from Texas, during the last hearing on the regulations.
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“The point is that people can continue to vote if they are registered,” Roy said. “If they have an intervention event or if you want to clean rolls, people would report to register to demonstrate citizenship so that we could transform our system into a reasonable time into a citizenship registration system.”
What documents would be required to register?
The Save Act forces you to reject each application for registration of voters, in which the Applicant did not submit “evidence of the Documentary Citizenship of the United States”.
Among the acceptable documents of demonstrating evidence of citizenship are:
-a great driving license in accordance with the identifier “indicates that the applicant is a citizen.”
– An crucial passport in the USA.
– Military Identification Card with a military history that lists the Applicant’s birthplace, as in the USA
-a valid identifier with a photo that shows that the applicant’s birthplace was in the USA
-a valid identifier with a photo issued by the government presented in a document such as a certified birth certificate, which shows that the place of birth was in the USA
What happens if my driving license does not mention my birthplace or indicates that I am a US citizen?
In general, the driving license does not mention the place of birth or do not indicate that the card holder is a citizen-many who are true.
Real ID was transferred by the Congress in 2005 in order to determine the minimum identity standards, such as driving licenses and requires the applicants to provide a social insurance number and demonstrate the status of law as a citizen or legal resident.
After years of delays, any driving license used to identify to pass through the airport protection will have to be a real adapted to the identifier from May 7. Passports in the USA will still be acceptable.
Although states define true compliance with the driving license by marking, such as gold or a black star, the same would not indicate US citizenship. People who are legal residents, but not citizens, can also get true ID.
The states are not currently obliged to mark “citizens” identifiers, although a handful of countries (Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington) offers a real alternative ID only a citizen who can meet the requirements for ACT. Republicans say they hope that more countries are moving towards identifiers indicating citizenship.
“The structure is now introduced to – I think there are at least five states that have citizenship status as a real ID – they encourage more states,” Roy said. “It would be part of the target here.”
Adopting a real identifier was ponderous. According to data collected by the Internal Security Department, from January 2024, about 56% of driving license and identity card in the USA was true in accordance with the identification proof.
What about people who cannot access births or marriage acts?
A group of voting rights claims that the list of documents does not consider reality, in the face of millions of Americans who do not have effortless access to their birth acts, and about half who do not have a passport in the USA.
They are also worried about additional obstacles for women whose birth acts do not match their current identity documents because they changed their name after marriage. There were examples of this during local elections last month New Hampshirewho recently implemented evidence of citizenship of the voting requirement.
Republicans claim that there is a provision in the Act on sales that requires you to develop the process of accepting additional documents, such as a marriage certificate that could establish a relationship between birth certificate and proof of the identity issued by the government.
They claim that this process is similar to obtaining an American passport or a real driving license.
“We have mechanisms that give you quite significant respect to determine how to structure the situation in which a person has a change of name,” said Roy. “This process is specially considered in this legislation.”
Democrats counteract that the act should have determined how it can be done instead of creating the potential to have 50 different rules.
How do people send their documents?
The legislation claims that the applicants who present the federal registration form voters by post must personally provide US citizenship documentation at the local election office within the time limit set by their state.
Groups of voice rights have noticed that it would be a huge barrier for people living in more rural parts of the country, where the nearest election office can be at hours of the car.
The Save Act manages states, in consultation with the US Electoral Assistance Committee, to provide “reasonable accommodation” to enable disabled people who submit a form of presentation of evidence of citizenship to their electoral official.
Legislation also believes that some countries allow the registration of voters on the same day and say that voters must provide evidence of citizenship in their election location “no later than on the day of elections.”
This would mean that people who do not have such evidence with them, they would have to return with documents before registration of the polls and will count their voting.
It is less clear what it means for those states that have online voter registration systems or automatic registration of voters created by the engine vehicle agency. Democratic election officials were fears that the regulations mean that these processes would no longer act as proposal.
Legislation claims that anyone who registers through the State Motor Vehicle Agency is also obliged to provide evidence of citizenship. He manages the Election Assistance Commission to issue guidelines of electoral officials regarding the implementation of law requirements.
Why did the Republicans move this?
Republicans say that any case of voting by non -wilders, no matter how rarely it is unacceptable and undermines trust in the US elections.
Democrats answer by saying that voting by non -portion people is already illegal in federal elections – those for president and congress – and punishments can cause fine and deportation. They say that Congress should be more focused on helping countries to improve their ability to identify and remove all people who are not people who can hit voter lists instead of forcing everyone to prove citizenship earlier.
A recent review in Michigan identified 15 people who seem to be born, who voted in universal elections in 2024, with over 5.7 million voting cards in this state. Of these, 13 were addressed to the Prosecutor General regarding potential penalty allegations. One of them concerned the voter who has died since then and the final case remains the subject of investigation.
“Our careful review confirms what we already knew – that this illegal activity is very rare,” said state secretary Michigan Jocelyn Benson in a statement. “Although we treat all violations of electoral law very seriously, this small fraction of potential matters in Michigan and at the national level does not justify recent efforts in order to adopt regulations that we know that tens of thousands of Michigan citizens would block before voting in future elections.”
