Paul Hammel: 'SAVE America Act' is a solution in search of a problem
One of my favorite political slogans of all time is “a solution in search of a problem.”
It’s used frequently in debates at the Nebraska Legislature to describe a proposal or idea that imposes new rules and restrictions to address a problem that doesn’t exist.
Paul Hammel
You might call it “government overreach,” too.
Anyway, the “solution in search of a problem” line is being used often today to describe President Trump’s efforts to change election laws via the dramatically labeled “SAVE America Act.”
Such an inflammatory name suggests that the country is in crisis, and in need of “saving,” thus justifying an extensive overhaul of election law.
Well, that’s a load of that stuff they scrape from the floors of feedlots.
Election fraud is not a problem, and is very, very, (one more time) very rare.
First off, the power to govern elections is granted to the states in the U.S. Constitution, not with the president or the U.S. Congress.
(Of course, constitutionality has never been a big deal for our current president. For instance, lots of legal experts warned that a president cannot impose tariffs, but Trump forged forward anyway, only to have them struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Now, there’s a messy task ahead to refund billions in tariffs that were mistakenly collected.)
As originally written, the SAVE American Act would have required people to present a document, such as a birth certificate or passport, every time they voted. I don’t know about you, but I have no idea where my birth certificate is, and I’m pretty sure the passport I got years ago is expired.
But the SAVE Act was amended by the U.S. House, likely because the I.D. requirements went way too far, and the act lacked the votes to pass.
The amended act, now before the U.S. Senate, is still onerous. It would require voters to present a photo I.D. to vote and would require states to send voter rolls to federal authorities for a scan — said to be flawed — to search for noncitizens who are voting.
Here’s the catch — almost no noncitizens are voting. According to research by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school, the incidence of voter fraud is between 0.003% and 0.0025%. That’s a probability of 1 in 40,000 voters to 1 in 333,333 voters.
States that have combed through their voter rolls, at great expense, have found little if any evidence that non-citizens are voting.
Despite all that, President Trump continues to complain that he didn’t lose the 2020 election, and that it was “rigged” against him. Meanwhile, dozens of lawsuits alleging election fraud failed due to lack of evidence, and countless recounts confirmed that he lost, fair and square.
In short, election fraud is “fake news.”
(There’s another old political phrase that comes to mind: “Get over it.")
Yet, Trump and his allies continue to push major changes in voting requirements. And if Congress fails to save us by passing the SAVE American Act (now known as the “Make Elections Great Again Act”), there’s reports he will sign some executive orders to do it anyway. That would be a federal takeover of what is a state responsibility.
Such new ID requirements, adopted so close to the November elections, would likely confuse voters and election officials, and eliminate some folks from voting because they didn’t have the proper photo ID.
Trump makes no bones about it, his stated goal is to guarantee the election of Republicans, who are predicted to lose seats in Congress because President Trump's popularity ratings have sunk to historic lows.
We live in a crazy world today, when a politician can say he’s against more wars and then start them, and when a politician can claim, over and over, that an election was rigged and then endeavor to rig one himself.
Last time I checked, voting was still a constitutional right and a process governed by the states, not the feds.
Yes, IDs should be checked, and we should ensure that only citizens are voting. But that’s happening already. No need to save us.
Paul Hammel has covered the Nebraska state government and the state for decades. Prior to his retirement, he was senior contributor with the Nebraska Examiner. He was previously with the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha Sun. A native of Ralston, Nebraska, he loves traveling and writing about the state.
