There’s a lot of talk about non-citizens voting, and Rep. Chip Roy from Texas is pretty vocal about it. He was on Breitbart News Daily, discussing a new law called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
Roy started by saying, “We’ve got evidence that people who aren’t citizens are voting. It doesn’t matter if they’re here legally or illegally.” He mentioned studies that show this is happening and gave examples. For instance, he talked about an election in Minnesota that might have been affected by non-citizen votes. He also noted that Virginia recently removed 1,500 registered voters.
Roy pointed out that cities like Oakland, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and New York City are registering non-citizens for local elections. However, there’s no strong system to ensure these non-citizens aren’t voting in federal elections. He explained that federal law makes it hard for states to check if someone is a citizen, which has led Arizona to create two separate voting systems—one for state elections and one for federal elections.
He explained the problem further by talking about the Motor Voter Act from the 1990s. This law makes it hard for states to collect the information needed to check citizenship. As a result, federal agencies encourage people to register to vote without solid checks in place to confirm citizenship.
Roy said the SAVE Act aims to fix this issue. The new law would make every state require proof of citizenship when someone registers to vote. This would close the loophole that allows non-citizens to vote.
He also mentioned that some states, like North Dakota, don’t require voter registration at all. In such states, people can just show up to vote. Roy emphasized that the SAVE Act would help adapt to these unique situations while ensuring that only citizens can vote.
According to Roy, this issue has massive bipartisan support. He pointed out that most people agree only citizens should vote. Recently, there was a vote in Washington, DC, about ending the registration of non-citizens for local elections. Roy noted that 52 Democrats supported it, but 143 opposed it. He also mentioned that Republicans were unanimous in their support.
Roy concluded by saying that the political divide on this issue is clear. He emphasized the importance of the SAVE Act, especially with the current situation of high immigration numbers under the Biden administration. This act, he believes, is crucial to ensuring the integrity of elections in the United States.