Election Integrity Wins: SAVE Act
The 2020 election, fraught with real and perceived controversies, has perhaps had a significant positive impact on improving election integrity. “Before 2020, people out in America weren’t paying that much attention. Now we have a network of election integrity advocates,” said Kerri Toloczko, executive director of the Election Integrity Network (EIN).
Over the past four years, various pro-election integrity organizations have achieved major victories both legislatively and in the courts. States have passed stronger voter ID laws, kept private oligarchs from bankrolling election administration, and rolled back the ranked-choice voting trend.
SAVE Act
More recently, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. The bill would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, known as the “motor voter law,” to require that states to obtain documentary proof of U.S. citizenship before a person may register to vote. “The SAVE Act passing the House allows for a discussion about a real and current threat,” Toloczko said. “States can take action constitutionally to protect citizen voters.”
With Democrats controlling both the Senate and the White House, it won’t become law in this legislative session. But it does lay the groundwork for lawmakers to try again. It also will put lawmakers on the record about what they think of noncitizens registering to vote.
“The SAVE Act laid down the marker. It is fixing an issue propped up by activists abusing the courts,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, in a phone interview.
There has also been plenty of opposition to election reforms.
On the left, the Institute for Responsive Government (IRG) established a report card for states, assigning a grade of A through F. It dinged states for having voter ID laws—broadly supported by the public. It also opposed any restrictions on private money running elections administration but favored automatic voter registration and expanded mail-in voting. The IRG progress report is sort of the Left’s alternative to the Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard.
The momentum is with the election integrity supporters, Toloczko explained, and in many states, it has fundamentally altered the political landscape. “Election integrity was an issue. We knew we needed to turn it into a movement, just like the pro-life movement, just like the pro-gun movement,” she said.
Even billionaire Elon Musk, owner of Space X and the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has taken notice. He even called opponents of the SAVE Act “TRAITORS,” on X.
“Now, election integrity is all over social media,” Toloczko added. “Elon Musk is even talking about it. But Elon Musk wouldn’t be talking about it if not for us,” she said, highlighting the activism of the EIN and other organizations.
There have long been organizations making arguments, presenting election fraud databases (Heritage Foundation), or filing various legal briefs and lawsuits about problems with voter registration rolls (Public Interest Legal Foundation).
Post 2020, the Left was eagerly trying to lump every evidence-based legitimate concern into a pile with the far-fetched tales on social media as a means to silence opponents.
So the grassroots had to up their game and arm themselves with facts, Toloczko explains. Beyond the think tanks and legal foundations, this movement at even the local level has diligently researched and shared Census data on voter registration lists and focused on separating fact from fiction. She said she encourages people in the Election Integrity Network, which now boasts 26 state chapters, to “be researchers and be resources.”
“It’s no longer one group of people running around with their hair on fire shouting fraud and another group of people just rolling their eyes,” she asserted. “We have done the research, gathered the facts about the vulnerabilities of elections, and threats to voters.”
Approaching 2024 Elections
As we move closer to the 2024 elections, states have continued to enhance election integrity.
In March, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed legislation to require state officials to compare voter registration lists with motor vehicle lists for noncitizens. Under the federal motor voter law—officially the National Voter Registration Act—people slip through the cracks and foreign nationals can be registered to vote.
State legislatures in Wisconsin and North Carolina, two battleground states, approved amendments to their state constitutions to ban noncitizen voting. The measures will go before voters in November.
Likewise, in March, the Kentucky legislature approved a proposed state constitutional amendment to prevent foreign nationals from voting in elections. The measure will be on Kentucky’s November ballot.
Similarly, in May, the Missouri General Assembly passed a state constitutional amendment to ban ranked-choice voting and ensure only U.S. citizens are able to vote in state and local elections. The proposed amendment will go to the November ballot.
In July, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed Executive Order 2024-07, which makes the process stronger for validating voter registrations to prevent foreign nationals from registering to vote. Idaho will also have a ballot measure for a constitutional amendment to prohibit noncitizen voting.
Voters in Oklahoma and South Carolina will also vote on ballot measures in November to ensure that only citizens vote
Also this year, the Oklahoma legislature passed a ban on ranked-choice voting, while in Virginia, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a ranked-choice voting bill passed by the Democratic legislature.
In August, Youngkin signed Executive Order 35 to codify election security procedures he put in place as governor. This included complete and thorough counting machine testing and updated voter list maintenance. It directs the Virginia Department of Elections to certify in writing each year improvements are in place and outlines procedures for dealing with noncitizens who attempt to register to vote, including referral to state prosecutors.
Youngkin said in a statement about the executive order:
We use 100% paper ballots with a strict chain of custody. We use counting machines, not voting machines, that are tested prior to every election and never connected to the internet. We do not mass mail ballots. We monitor our drop boxes 24/7. We verify the legal presence and identity of voters using DMV data and other trusted data sources to update our voter rolls daily, not only adding new voters, but scrubbing the lists to remove those that should not be on it, like the deceased, individuals that have moved, and non-citizens that have accidentally or maliciously attempted to register.
