Last week, Trump abruptly cancelled the signing of a housing bill which would help relieve the United States’ ongoing housing affordability crisis. The bill, which garnered widespread bipartisan support, was shelved by Trump because he demanded the Senate pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a controversial piece of legislation that restricts voting rights.
This isn’t the first time Trump has delayed legislation or a nomination to try and pressure Congress into passing the SAVE Act. Earlier in June, Trump stated that he would not sign any renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Then, Trump delayed the nomination of Jay Clayton for the Director of National Intelligence, again in an effort to push SAVE’s passage.
But why? What about the SAVE Act is so important to Trump that he is delaying passing legislation that could be a major win for the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections? The truth is, the SAVE Act is a key piece of Trump’s retribution campaign for his loss in 2020 and his likely plan to ensure he doesn’t feel the pain of that loss ever again.
Trump’s plan appears to be causing as much chaos as possible ahead of November, through both major legislative changes and complicated litigation. This manufactured chaos comes at a time when the American electorate is already concerned about engaging in political activity for fear of political violence. A recent GPAHE-commissioned poll showed that less than half of respondents, roughly 48%, feel completely safe going to their polling places, and more than 60% of respondents are worried about people carrying weapons at their polling places and conducting a violent attack or shooting.
About the SAVE Act
The SAVE Act, introduced by Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) and co-sponsored by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), would make major changes to the ways Americans go to the polls, including changing registration standards and restricting methods of registration. The bill requires that individuals registering to vote show either a U.S. Passport or a certified birth certificate paired with a photo ID and bans online or mail-in voter registration.
The bill goes far beyond normal voter identification laws, which typically require individuals to show a valid form of photo identification, like a driver’s license, tribal ID, or military ID. It is estimated that the bill could make voting harder for tens of millions of Americans because they don’t have ready access to the citizenship documents required.
Approximately 146 million American citizens do not possess a valid passport, with the lowest rates of passport ownership concentrated in red states. Upwards of 69 million women do not have a birth certificate that matches their current legal name, and the bill does not mention any exceptions for presenting a marriage certificate or change-of-name documentation.
The bill would also likely make it harder for military families to vote, by ending online and mail-in voter registration, meaning deployed individuals would have to return to their local election office to register. It would also likely disproportionately affect people of color, who are three times more likely to lack the documents the bill requires.
The bill aims to prevent “noncitizen voting,” even though those cases are extremely rare. An analysis of the data published by the far-right think tank The Heritage Foundation found only 77 cases of noncitizen voting between 1999 and 2023, each of which was investigated by the appropriate authorities.
Why Does Trump Care?
Since 2020, Trump has been on a mission to prove that his loss of the 2020 election was the result of a deliberate attempt to keep him from power. He has alleged everything from mass voter fraud by non-citizens to rigged machines that counted votes for other candidates. All these claims were ultimately proven false, but Trump has never stopped saying he was the rightful winner.
Many of Trump’s actions during his second term can be explained by this refusal to accept the results from 2020, including the pardons of January 6th rioters, the appointment of numerous election deniers to key offices across government, demanding states hand over voter information, and the multitude of executive orders that restrict voting rights, most of which are currently held up by court rulings.
The push to pass the SAVE Act and all of Trump’s actions seem to have one goal in mind: to create doubt in the minds of the American people when it comes to the security of our elections. With only four months to go before November, a flurry of changes now has the potential to send state election officials scrambling to adapt with only weeks to go. The result? A chaotic election that is easier to poke holes in.
Trump’s goal is seemingly to generate enough noise, confusion, and litigation that any outcomes he disagrees with can be questioned and tried in the court of public opinion. The last time this happened, a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol to prevent the certification of the new president. In some ways, Trump’s refusal to move on from 2020 has already infected the ways many Americans view our election system. The same GPAHE-commissioned poll mentioned earlier found a growing concern among respondents about voter fraud, despite overwhelming evidence that fraud in U.S. elections is exceedingly rare.
This is the same playbook Trump has run before. In the weeks before the 2020 election, he repeatedly warned that mail-in voting would produce a “rigged” result, laying the groundwork for his later lawsuits against states whose outcomes he didn’t like. The difference now is that we are dealing with a much different Trump administration, one which has repeatedly defied court orders and violated federal law.
The GPAHE-commissioned poll also found that 77% of respondents believed it is at least somewhat likely that the party that loses and/or its supporters will attempt to stop the certification of the results, falsify the election in some way, or engage in political violence to stop the new president from taking office. In 2020, democratic institutions ultimately held, albeit barely. Now, those institutions are either completely gone or in the hands of election deniers who are fiercely loyal to only one thing: Donald Trump.
