Republicans are fumbling the SAVE Act |
Republicans are fumbling the SAVE Act
Last week, I received an email asking me to update my voter information. Too bad it was from a county I had moved away from nearly three years ago.
I doubt that is unusual; efficiently and safely managing the voter rolls is not exactly a priority in local government. As a result, America’s voter rolls are a mess.
Past elections have shown long tabulation times, broken voting machines, voter registration errors, deceased voters on the rolls and millions of double-registered voters — that is, voters who move and end up being registered in more than one jurisdiction (apparently you can add me to that list). And there is little indication that anything is changing.
The public is clearly concerned with vote security. Polls by Politico and YouGov show majorities in favor of voter ID and plurality support for cleaning up the voter rolls. Even a sizable minority of Democratic voters are in favor, a rarity in our highly polarized political environment.
Politico reports that 52 percent of those polled are in favor of “requiring proof of citizenship” to register to vote, but that underestimates the strength of the issue. Only 18 percent are opposed, including only 32 percent of Democrats. The problem is the high number of undecided voters, with 13 percent unsure and 17 percent saying they “neither support nor oppose” it.
YouGov found that 59 percent of all voters support “Requiring Document Proof of Citizenship to Vote,” with 29 percent opposed. That includes 35 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of independents. Again, there is a relatively high percentage of unsure voters, at 12 percent (17 percent of independents).
Voting by non-citizens was considered a serious or somewhat serious problem by 45 percent of voters, against 43 percent who disagreed. However, YouGov significantly oversamples Democrats. When broken out by........