Can Democrats take “Yes” for an answer?
As the Senate weighs the SAVE America Act, Republicans should help Democrats overcome their objections to this bill.
Racist Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., complain that black folks lack photo ID. Democrats insist that expecting supposedly witless or listless blacks to show poll workers photo ID is “Jim Crow 2.0.”
Democrats never offer to give IDs to these invisible legions of undocumented blacks. Imagine if Democrats handed photo ID to these poor, benighted souls: Blacks and others of color could cash checks, jet across America, get paid to shovel snow in New York City, and even vote in states with photo ID rules.
Democrats also attack SAVE for requiring birth certificates to register to vote. “Got one of those handy with you, in your purse?” Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., prodded a congressional correspondent. “I doubt it.”
So, Senate Republicans should open the SAVE America Act proceedings by making Democrats vote first on legislation that I would call The Voting Documents for All Act.
• Any adult U.S. citizen could visit his state’s DMV office and receive a free photo ID card (not a driver’s license).
• The federal government would reimburse states for the cost of each free photo ID card, plus 10%, to encourage their assistance. This would be a funded mandate.
• Likewise, birth certificates for voter registration would be available, free of charge. Right now, Americans can order birth certificates online in all 50 states, through private and government websites. New federal promo codes could chop prices to $0.00.
• Congress would reimburse website owners and state agencies for their foregone birth-certificate revenues. Alternatively, tax credits could help voter-registration applicants recoup their document-acquisition expenses.
• Washington should offer states block grants to underwrite their worthy ways to boost access to election-related free birth certificates and photo ID cards.
• This could be financed from the $2 billion average annual revenues in the Justice Department’s Assets Forfeiture Fund. This includes ill-gotten gains from drug cartels and other criminal enterprises. This money is earmarked for “law enforcement-related priorities.”
Conveniently enough, distinguishing between U.S. citizens and cartelistas is a public safety and national security priority. This would be easier to accomplish if every American could show photo ID, and cartel members could not. The SAVE America Act’s birth certificate obligation would stymie MS-13 and Tren de Aragua thugs who try to become registered voters.
Democrat hacks, such as Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., call these concerns “voter fraud conspiracy theories.”
But Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon told Just the News Tuesday that the Justice Department scrutinized just 16 states. “We’re finding tens of thousands of noncitizens on the voter rolls, hundreds of thousands of dead people on the voter rolls, and duplicate registrations between states.” In fact, the Justice Department indicted Mauritanian illegal alien Mahady Sacko this month for allegedly voting in seven federal elections since 2008.
The Voting Documents for All Act would help mop up this mess and put Democrats precisely where Republicans want them.
If Senate Democrats vote “Yea”—with virtually every Republican, and the GOP House concurs—then U.S. citizens would enjoy free photo IDs and registration-related birth certificates. Democrats’ top arguments against the SAVE America Act would evaporate, like drizzle on a sunbaked sidewalk.
Democrats will have no excuse for fighting a bill favored by, according to a Feb. 25-26 Harvard Harris poll, 71% of 1,999 registered voters surveyed, including 50% of their fellow Democrats, 69% of independents, and 91% of Republicans.
Conversely, if Democrats vote “Nay,” they will expose themselves as congenital liars who could not care less about Americans without photo ID (good luck renting cars or checking into motels!) and prefer not to help citizens attain birth certificates so they can register to vote.
Either outcome would be a huge GOP victory. Democrats would paint themselves into a corner, whichever way.
An enterprising Republican senator should draft this proposed measure today, and Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., should deploy it as the opening salvo in the Senate’s election-integrity showdown.
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