The law requires voter ID to participate in federal elections. President Donald Trump has said he will not sign another bill into law until the legislation reaches his desk.
In Washington, the SAVE America Act has been the source of a painful debate between lawmakers. The proposal would require proof of citizenship and photo ID to participate in federal elections and would require states to scrub their voter rolls of noncitizens.
With the Senate returning to the nation’s capital this week, the SAVE America Act is again a focus point.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune remains adamant that the chamber does not have the votes to overcome the filibuster and pass the legislation.
“I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD,” wrote President Trump in support of the legislation.
In Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt uncovered that hundreds of noncitizens had registered to vote and cast ballots in Philadelphia.
“I’ve always heard my whole life, even though I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, about concerns about voter fraud and voting irregularities in Philadelphia elections. So I wanted to be able to sort out fact from fiction,” Schmidt said in a recent interview.
In 2012, Schmidt came into office as a Philadelphia Republican city commissioner. He began investigating claims of voter fraud and eventually discovered an error within the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s motor voter system. The system helps register voters who are obtaining a driver’s license.
The error enabled noncitizens to register to vote in the Commonwealth.
The error occurred when PennDOT, having the paperwork confirming the individuals were noncitizens, did not prevent them from interacting with the voter registration screens when completing the license application process. Noncitizens are permitted to have a drivers license in Pennsylvania.
The error was fixed in 2017, and state Auditor General Tim DeFoor is currently conducting an audit to assess the system.
During Schmidt’s initial investigation, he found that the error allowed 168 noncitizens to register to vote in Philadelphia. An additional 52 noncitizens registered by other means.
Schmidt found that 227 votes were cast by those noncitizens in the years they were illegally registered. The problem was likely much larger across the entire Commonwealth.
In 2018, the state sent letters to 11,198 voters across the Commonwealth asking them to confirm their eligibility. At least 1,915 were confirmed to be eligible, and another 501 registrations were cancelled.
The state does not have an exact count of how many noncitizens were registered as a result of the PennDOT system error.
Republicans in Congress are advocating for swift passage of the SAVE America Act as the Department of Justice collects state voter rolls and is coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security to check if noncitizens are voting in federal elections.
