Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Reports” that a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections was “voter suppression.”
Host José Díaz-Balart said, “I know that also, the House today also approved the SAVE Act, a bill requiring proof of citizenship for voter registrations. The president signed a similar executive order last month. That executive order has been challenged legally, but this is a bill now that has been passed by the House. It’s going to go now to the Senate. How do you feel that on that?”
Padilla said, “You know, there’s that saying, when this is a solution in search of a problem, this is a classic example of the SAVE Act. What Republicans are doing is once again demonizing immigrants for the sake of making it harder for eligible citizens to register to vote and to cast their ballots in elections. It’s voter suppression in disguise, not so much of a disguise. And here is the truth. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in our elections.”
He added, “What would the SAVE act do? It would make it harder for members of the military, for example, when they’re deployed to a different base and maybe have to reregister and it’s not so easy for them not maybe being able to vote in the next election, or a woman who’s married to change her last name, and all of a sudden her ID doesn’t match her birth certificate. You know, this is voter suppression and it’s unnecessary.”
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