Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to withhold his signature from all bills until Congress passes a GOP-led voting bill that implements voter restrictions ahead of the November midterms.

“I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY – ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL,” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The bill, called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE America Act, requires individuals to show citizenship documents to register to vote and strict forms of photo ID to cast a ballot. If passed, the legislation would also administer criminal penalties for election officials who register anyone lacking the required documents.

As my colleague Ari Berman wrote in February, the bill would potentially block tens of millions of Americans from voting. Nine percent of American citizens, or approximately 21 million people, don’t have ready access to citizenship documents. The bill may impact millions of US citizens in other ways: tens of millions of women who took their partner’s last name, for example, may not have a birth certificate that matches their legal name could find it more difficult to register.

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[–] 109 points 5 months ago (8 children)

For people who might not be in the US and don't understand why this is a bad idea in the US and proportionately hurts poor people, proof of citizenship is usually a passport. A passport costs $130. You need supporting documents like your birth certificate, SSN, and a drivers license/state ID to get it. For your first passport you usually have to make an appointment to go somewhere authorized like a library, post office, or courthouse to apply, and then they send the application off and it can take weeks to months to get back, depending how backed up the processing agency is (and I'm sure there will be artificial delays during voting years if this passes). Also, they are passing laws limiting where you can go to apply, so now libraries and the post office are losing the ability to process passport applications, so people will have to go to the county courthouse, which could be a long drive from where they live, especially if you live in a rural area. For people who don't drive, or only have one car that is shared with another working adult, or use public transportation that has a limited range (or just doesn't exist in most of the US), or are disabled and can't travel far, this can be a huge problem.

Also, all these places are only open during normal business hours, so you probably have to take time off work to go apply. Federal minimum wage is only $7.25/hr while the living wage is actually much higher (living wage for 1 adult living alone in a 1 bedroom apartment where I live was considered almost $23/hr in 2024), and if someone is making minimum wage or close to it they almost certainly aren't getting paid time off, so now they have to come up with $130 for the fee and lose time off work.

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  • [–] 54 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Also not that it matters anymore but the Supreme Court already ruled it unconstitutional a long time ago as it's a form of poll tax. Remember when Supreme Court decisions weren't just "whatever Trump wants today" and actually were based on the constitution? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    The current court regularly votes down Trump, tariffs are the most recent example.

    The issue is the court is full of conservative assholes who care more about their feelings more than the law.

    Don't get me wrong this is still a Trump caused problem, he appointed most of the new conservatives, but they still don't rubber stamp everything he does.

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  • [–] 46 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    Here's the real problem: this law would require voters to identify themselves using a photo ID, and it has to be a specific kind of updated ID. Americans have been pushed over the last few years to convert their Driver's License to a "Real ID," which is a Divers License that has been verified with other documents, like a birth certificate or a passport.

    If you are man, it is easy because presumably, you have had the same name since birth, so your Real ID Drivers License only requires your birth certificate.

    But if you are a woman, and you are married, you probably changed your name to your husband's, so you need a marriage certificate to prove your name change. If you have been married and divorced, you may have to prove THAT name change with a birth certificate AND a marriage certificate AND divorce papers from the first marriage, then a marriage certificate from your second marriage. It can get complicated.

    Then there is my wife's problem. As a man, I had no problem getting a Real ID, but my wife needed our marriage certificate. We were married in a Caribbean island over 30 years ago, and the marriage certificate has gone missing long ago. We have been requesting a replacement for over a decade, and have not been able to get one. It can't be done online, it has to be by mail. It is not too expensive, only about $10, but it's usually rejected for the wrong money. They always claim (when we hear any explanation at all) that we have sent the wrong form of payment, which they then keep. We've sent money orders, checks, cash, etc., and probably spent over $100, and still nothing.

    So my wife can't get a Real ID because the country we got married in won't cooperate. I suspect our marriage license is lost, and they can't supply a copy. In any case, until we can get this straightened out, my wife has no valid ID, and can't vote under Trump's new law, and if she can't vote for this reason, there are many others on the same situation.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Could you get remarried at the courthouse? Or is that fraud?

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago

    We've considered that, but also the fraud angle. Does that mean that things like our mortgage would technically be bank fraud? It's not really an issue, unless the govt decides they don't like my politics, and need an excuse to incarcerate me. My wife is considering just paying for a legal name change in our state. That doesn't imply anything is wrong with the legality of the marriage, she's just making it legal for ID purposes.

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    It's curious why they would want to implement this because although it affects poor people, it would probably also disproportionately affect poor Republicans.

    Many voters in states like Mississippi/Arkansas do not have passports because they are both poor and have no intention to travel internationally so don't bother with passports.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

    I am not from the US, so I'm also mentally comparing with what happens in my country. Here, the place where you're registered to vote has a list of all voter names and birth dates. You get there to vote, show a form of valid ID (driver's license is a valid one), you can vote and you're crossed off the list so you can't vote twice. You don't need to prove citizenship directly because if you don't have the right to vote, you're not on the list.

    How does it work in the US? Citizenship aside, how do you prove that you are who you say you are and don't e.g. wear a hat and fake moustache and vote 3 times? Honest question, I'm not judging, I'm genuinely trying to understand how things work today in the US.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    For the most part - it works exactly like what you described. What kinds of ID are valid, and to some extent whether you are required to present one at all, depends on which state you live in.

    The fake mustache double voter would have to know the details of another person who is already registered to vote (only some states allow same-day voter registration) and gambles on the other person not showing up to vote.

    One big difference between the US and a lot of other democracies (when it comes to voting laws) is that the US doesn't have any form of universal national identification documents - pretty much everything is issued on a state-by-state basis, and with very few exceptions those state level IDs don't actually say anything about citizenship - noncitizen permanent residents are allowed to get driver's licenses.

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    [–] 78 points 5 months ago* (7 children)

    "If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy."

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    [–] 61 points 5 months ago

    Because more and more people hate his guts with the fury of a thousand women scorned.

    And for good reason.

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  • [–] 44 points 5 months ago

    Schumer's gonna pass the SAVE act so he can pass Iran War funding, isn't he?

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  • [–] 35 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Martial law in October. Get out or buy a gun

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  • [–] 23 points 5 months ago (4 children)
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    [–] 22 points 5 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 19 points 5 months ago

    woohoo. congess can't pass anymore bullshit laws.

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  • [–] 17 points 5 months ago

    ...our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

    -- Paul Weyrich, 1980

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  • [–] 17 points 5 months ago

    ... I'm tired

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    Every time mail in ballots is brought up I mention that Florida has a successful mail in ballot system and they’ve been Republican for well over two decades.

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    [–] 10 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I'm okay with him not signing any bills.

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  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago

    The SAVE act as currently written has a religious exemption, boy do I have a church for you: The Church of Unconsented Likeness. Take the pledge today! https://substack.com/@tover153/p-188528157

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  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I've got a lot of worry about how much time he still has to get this passed, and about the viability of the midterms in general. I'm very worried he finds a way to suspend them, or actually gets this bill passed. (Or both)

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    He will get this passed, or do it with some sort of executive order. Most left leaning states will ignore these things as they constitutionally have no power. And trump will use that at a reason to invalidate those states's votes entirely. This will cause violent protests. Trump will bring in the military and declare marshal law. We will then have a dictatorship with trump and his sons as dictators for generations.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago

    Bitch I’ve been saying this would happen for a fucking decade

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago

    Oh, gee, he won't sign anymore illegal, unconstitutional legislation? Oooh, don't hurt me.

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