When congressional Democrats tried – in vain — to force states to stop gerrymandering and voter suppression, the GOP branded this an attempt to “federalize” elections.
What has morphed into the Musk-Trump, or “Mump,” Party now wants to do some federalizing of its own. In its search for self-serving solutions to nonexistent problems, it’s trying to force states to discourage large numbers of unsuspecting U.S. citizens from voting.
A first step: House Mumpers are fast-tracking House Resolution 22, which they’ve somewhat misleadingly named the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.”
The bill would require proof of citizenship to register to vote or reregister if you’ve moved. That may sound reasonable, but voting rights advocates say it just puts up unnecessary obstacles.
For one thing, non-citizen voting is already illegal and hardly ever happens because violators risk severe penalties – jail time, hefty fines and deportation — for little or no rewards.
H.R. 22 would “functionally eliminate” mail registration because you’d have to present your citizenship documents to an election official in person, the Brennan Center for Justice said. “It would also abolish many or all voter registration drives and online voter registration systems, which are typically treated like mail registration.”
And a 2023 survey by the Brennan Center and others found more than 9% of voting-age Americans – 21.3 million – didn’t have a passport, birth certificate or naturalization papers readily available. The research indicates the bill would disproportionately affect those who are young, not white and/or have changed their names — “most notably married women.”
I’m in the last group but wasn’t concerned because I have a REAL ID driver’s license. To get it, I had to present my birth certificate, as well as my first-marriage, divorce and second-marriage documents, for scanning at the local PennDOT center.
But the Campaign Legal Center says that wouldn’t be enough according to H.R. 22 because, like nearly all U.S. driver’s licenses, mine doesn’t say I’m a citizen.
The Mumpers are pushing the bill even though it would disenfranchise or at least greatly inconvenience some of their voters. The harm would extend to tens of millions of Americans and wouldn’t be limited to any one party, said Eliza Sweren-Becker, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s voting rights program.
So it’s hard to understand what these politicians are thinking, unless they’re just trying to please Donald Trump, who’s been spouting false claims of voter fraud since he failed to win the popular vote in 2016.
Back in Pennsylvania
Congressional Mumpers aren’t the only ones looking to make voting harder.
The Harrisburg GOP has been so obsessed with making our voter ID laws much stricter that it tried to push through a constitutional amendment by tying it to a widely accepted one that would have allowed more victims of childhood sex abuse to sue their perpetrators.
That tactic didn’t work, but Joe Pittman, the Senate’s GOP majority leader, told Votebeat that tightening voter ID requirements is still a “fundamental” to-do list item.
P.S. Before he was even sworn in, GOP state Attorney General Dave Sunday got rid of Consumer Advocate Patrick Cicero, who had … advocated for consumers, especially those opposing for-profit utilities’ purchases of municipal water and sewer systems.
Cicero resigned, saying lobbying by those companies for his removal could not be separated from Sunday’s offer of a “Hobson’s choice” of quitting or reapplying for his job. “Collectively, they challenge the integrity and independence of the office,” he added.
P.P.S.Kudos to Gov. Josh Shapiro for doing what Attorney General Sunday should have; he sued the Mump administration because of its infamous funding freeze, which he says is still wreaking havoc here despite federal court rulings against it.
Shapiro said he filed the lawsuit after working with Pennsylvania’s members of Congress to try to restore more than $2 billion to state agencies whose projects include reclaiming former mine lands, plugging abandoned wells and providing low-income families with money to make their homes more energy-efficient.
Turning his back on his own constituents, GOP Congressman/Mump administration head cheerleader Dan Meuser took to Fox Business and social media to bash the governor he says he might try to unseat next year. At one point, he even accused Shapiro of chasing headlines.
Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
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