The White House came out in staunch opposition to the House GOP‘s election integrity bill that is set to come to the floor this week, saying the measure would “do nothing” to protect federal elections and is redundant of current laws in place.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and backed by former President Donald Trump, would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require people to provide proof of citizenship before registering to vote.
“It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections — it is a Federal crime punishable by prison and fines,” the White House said in a statement on Monday. “The alleged justification for this bill is based on easily disproven falsehoods.”
“States already have effective safeguards in place to verify voters’ eligibility and maintain the accuracy of voter rolls,” the White House continued. “This bill would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but it would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls. The evidence is clear that the current laws to prevent noncitizen voting are working as intended — it is extraordinarily rare for noncitizens to break the law by voting in Federal elections.”
Instances of noncitizens voting in federal elections are few and far between. A fraud database by the conservative Heritage Foundation found only 100 cases of noncitizens voting between 2002 and 2022 among a sample of over 1 billion ballots. Even if those ballots were detected, it would do little to sway a presidential election.
Roy dismissed the Biden administration’s opposition to the bill during a Monday interview on The Benny Show shortly after the release of the White House’s statement.
“I’m honored to be in the crosshairs of the White House,” Roy said to host Benny Johnson. “The White House is very clearly in opposition to the well-being of most Americans, right, as evidenced by their open borders and the death of Laken Riley and a bunch of Texans. This administration is not interested in safeguarding the American people’s right to vote.”
Roy argued that the bill will not interfere with an American citizen’s ability to cast a ballot.
“That’s the truth. We’re just gonna make sure that we try to prevent those who are noncitizens from voting, but of course, they oppose it. They don’t want any break in their current efforts to try and register people … to vote who are noncitizens,” Roy said.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) accused Democrats of wanting to “turn illegal aliens into voters” in a post on X on Monday.
“Why are Democrats so adamantly against ensuring only American citizens vote in our elections?” Johnson said. “We must pass the SAVE Act to prevent this.”
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The SAVE Act is a by-product of a meeting between the speaker and Trump during a visit at Mar-a-Lago to voice concerns on election integrity ahead of the 2024 elections. Roy later introduced the bill in May.
The House Rules Committee is taking up the bill on Monday, setting it up for a full House vote as early as Tuesday. With Democrats controlling the Senate, it is unlikely the SAVE Act will come to a vote if passed by the lower chamber.
