Poll Blows Up GOP’s Central SAVE America Act Claim

As the Senate is considering the Republican voter suppression bill that is Donald Trump’s top legislative priority, GOP lawmakers keep claiming that Americans support the measure. However, a new poll shows that this is categorically false.

While it is true that a large majority of Americans want voters to present a photo ID before casting their ballot, a mere 28 percent of them say they favor passage of the deceptively named “SAVE America Act.” Thirty-one percent of them oppose it and the rest are not sure.

You wouldn’t know that from listening to Trump or any other Republican.

“THE SAVE AMERICA ACT is by far the most popular Bill of its kind ever put before Congress!” the president wrote last week.

It’s a statement that the GOP proponents of the legislation have repeated in some form for months. However, as the poll shows, it’s simply not true.

And not only that. The 80-20 support for voter ID does not reflect what’s in the bill. That’s because the measure requires voters to present identification that shows they are US citizens, which is something two-thirds of respondents approve of.

While it is true that 90 percent of respondents felt that a passport, which only about half of them own, would be an acceptable form of ID, even more of them (95 percent) believe that a driver’s license or other state-issued type of identification should be sufficient.

However, if the SAVE America Act were to be signed into law, most driver’s licenses would not qualify because they do not show whether the holder is an American citizen.

That’s not all. Trump wants to use the bill as a vehicle for banning most types of voting by mail. However, about half of all Americans think this option to cast their ballots should be available to everybody while another 39 percent believe it should only be available to people who are away or physically unable to vote.

In addition to showing that Republicans are misrepresenting their bill and how much public support it has, the poll also reveals some very troubling trends.

Trump’s Big Lie and his efforts to undermine faith in US democracy are having an effect.

Even though the president or the Republicans who are parroting him have never presented evidence supporting their lies, almost one-third of Americans (and more than half of GOP voters) believe that there is “widespread voter fraud and irregularities” in US elections.

And, although even conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation have found that it is exceedingly rare for noncitizens to vote, 23 percent of respondents (and nearly half of Trump supporters) think this happens “a lot.”

What is also troubling is that Democrats didn’t commission a poll like this a long time ago since it was clear what it would show: It would have countered a main (and incorrect) talking point that Republicans have been trotting out for months.

In addition, Democrats could (and should) have been more proactive in rolling out their own version of an election integrity bill – one that protects the elections while eliminating the many barriers Republicans are trying to put up that make voting more difficult.

For example, the poll shows that two-thirds of Americans support a proof of citizenship requirement. That is sensible. However, to work, it must be easy to provide that proof so as not to disenfranchise eligible voters. People realize that this is a concern. Twenty-nine percent of them stated that such a requirement would prevent eligible US citizens from voting.

The easiest way to address that problem would be to automatically register Americans at birth or as part of their naturalization process.

This is something that should be broadly popular and eliminate concerns about noncitizens voting. It would also demonstrate that Republicans oppose such a measure because they have been coming up with various ways for years to pick who gets to vote.

As it is, Democrats are not doing enough to fight back. While it is easier to spread a lie than to combat it, they have to do more to restore faith in democracy and counteract Trump’s efforts to rig the midterms.