Donald Trump is going all out to pressure the Senate to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which he insists on calling the Save America Act. On 8 March, he posted on Truth Social: “It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed … MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY - ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL … ”

The New York Times reports that the president “has called the measure his ‘No. 1 priority,’ saying it would ‘guarantee the midterms’ for his party.” He has even asked Senate Republicans to use their majority to end the filibuster and pass the bill.

The measure would make voting even more onerous than it already is. It would require voters to prove their citizenship in person when they register to vote.

It would severely limit mail-in voting or online registration, require documentary proof of US citizenship, and require states to turn over their voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security, which could then order voters purged from the voting rolls.

The Save Act is a solution in search of a problem, since fraudulent voting by non-citizens almost never happens in this country. And while it is unlikely to pass the Senate, it represents a dramatic shift in the federal government’s attitude toward voting.

It is clear that, whether or not the Save Act ever becomes law, more needs to be done to counteract Donald Trump’s ongoing effort to undermine confidence in voting and elections in the United States. If they defeat the Save Act, progressives and other pro-democracy groups cannot rest on their laurels.

They have much work to do to educate the American public about voting and to reverse the public’s declining faith in the electoral process. This will require an infusion of new resources not just to convince eligible voters to cast their ballots, but also to convince them that voting still works and that elections can be........

© The Guardian