Dems Try To Sabotage Push For Proof Of Citizenship To Vote

Democrats in Congress have fought against every bill that would ensure only U.S. citizens vote in U.S. elections. They voted against the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in the House, and they’ve chloroformed it in the Senate. They’ve sued to stop President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

Why would Democrats and left-wing activists fight so hard and spend so much money trying to kill a basic election safeguard that the vast majority of Americans support? 

They want noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections. And, as always, they’re willing to game the system to get what they want. 

‘We Expect to be Vindicated’

On Halloween, scary leftist U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, an 82-year-old Clinton nominee who has sentenced pro-life activists to prison under the unconstitutional FACE Act — declared the proof of citizenship requirement unconstitutional. She said Trump had infringed upon Congress’ role in election regulation. Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling also blocks the U.S. Election Assistance Commission from enforcing the election integrity provision. 

“President Trump has exercised his lawful authority to ensure only American citizens are casting ballots in American elections. This is so commonsense that only the Democrat Party would file a lawsuit against it. We expect to be vindicated by a higher court,” Deputy White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Newsweek following the ruling. 

In the meantime, the EAC is considering an America First Legal Foundation petition calling for the commission to adopt a proof of citizenship rule by amending EAC regulations and the National Mail Voter Registration Form. 

‘The Honor System Is Not Enough’

Before the close of the public comment period on Oct. 20, the petition had garnered more than 350,000 comments. America First Legal announced the proof of citizenship proposal earned support from 14 states, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Republican members of Congress, leading election integrity organizations, and state election administrators. The coalition, AFL said, represents “one of the broadest demonstrations of public demand for commonsense ballot protection measures in modern history.”

“America First Legal’s petition sparked a nationwide movement,” Gene Hamilton, president of the nonprofit law firm, said in a press release. “From state leaders to the grassroots, the message is clear: the honor system is not enough. The EAC must act to defend the rule of law, protect the integrity of our elections, and restore confidence in the ballot box.”

As of Wednesday, the EAC reported receiving more than 380,000 comments on the petition, but only 134,500 have been posted on the commission’s website. And it appears leftist organizations have flooded the zone. 

‘A Massive Push By the Left’

The Election Integrity Network has been tracking the numbers, particularly a curious surge of comments from those opposed to proof of citizenship in U.S. elections. EIN Deputy Director Ned Jones told The Federalist that there were some 16,000 comments posted on the site at the start of the government shutdown, many from supporters of the petition. Since then, the number has exploded eight-fold over the past month. Jones said the EAC received more than 215,000 comments in one day, comprising the lion’s share of the 380,000-plus total comments, Jones added.

“We don’t know exactly what happened, but there was a massive push by the left to get negative comments on the petition,” the election integrity expert told The Federalist in an interview. “Once they started posting them you could hardly find a positive comment when you looked through the posting.” 

Jones said the network’s data analyst has tracked approximately 40,000 unique duplicates — multiple representations of the same comment. 

A Federalist review of dozens of the most recent comments found opponents far outnumber supporters, and several duplicate messages. 

Richard Van Dyke wrote, “Only half of American citizens have a passport, and 69 million citizens lack a birth certificate that matches their current legal name — most of them women. States already verify eligibility. We don’t need to add more barriers to the ballot.” It’s one of the left’s leading arguments against documentary proof of citizenship. It’s also crap. And The Federalist found the exact same verbiage in multiple comments. 

Another popular comment “strongly” urged the EAC to reject the “Show Your Papers” rule. The policy, the commenters insisted, would “disenfranchise millions of eligible Americans.” It wouldn’t. 

UnidosUS

Jones said the Election Integrity Network found some 400 organizations involved in the comments, the majority of them left-leaning. He said the leftist League of Women Voters is heavily involved. So, too, is a group called UnidosUS, a left-wing immigration advocacy nonprofit funded by federal grants approved by Joe Biden’s and Barack Obama’s presidential administrations. 

Formerly known as the National Council of La Raza, the group was a vehement supporter of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) executive maneuvers to grant legal status to illegal immigrants, according to charity tracker InfluenceWatch. 

“In addition, they supported the ‘DREAM Act’ that would provide legal status to certain migrants,” InfluenceWatch reports. “UnidosUS also supported other left-of-center immigration policy proposals at the federal, state, and local levels that offer legal presence and protection to illegal immigrants, especially those from Mexico and Central America.”

The group’s leadership was tied at the hip to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, former Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 campaign operation, and Obama’s administration.

UnidosUS submitted a lengthy letter in its opposition to the petition, noting that the organization “has helped to register more than 1 million eligible voters, and in each of the last two election cycles, has reached over half a million voters through nonpartisan voter education and Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) efforts.”

‘This is Common Sense’

With growing numbers of noncitizens showing up on state voter rolls, election integrity advocates say protecting the vote requires proving citizenship. 

As Paul Barrese wrote in support of documentary proof of citizenship in federal voter registration, the current process relies on the “honor system,” which is inadequate protection for the sanctity of U.S. elections. 

“By requiring valid documents such as a U.S. passport or Enhanced Driver’s License, we can confirm voter eligibility and prevent electoral fraud, Barrese wrote.The EAC has a responsibility to address this gap and ensure that the right to vote is reserved for U.S. citizens, thereby protecting the core of our democracy.”

Tom Berwick put it more succinctly. 

“Make proof of citizenship a requirement before this country is just another banana republic. This is common sense,” Berwick wrote. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.