Tag: voter id

Senate Republicans push for House GOP rebellion against funding package, voter ID legislation

A pair of Senate Republicans are pushing their House counterparts to reject the Trump-backed shutdown deal unless it includes Homeland Security funding and election integrity legislation. 

Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, are calling on House Republicans to push back against the Senate-passed funding package, which includes bills to fund five agencies, including the Pentagon, as a partial government shutdown continues. 

They contended that the package needs to be retooled, and must include a modified version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act, dubbed the SAVE America Act, and the Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, which was stripped out after Senate Democrats threatened to blow up the government funding process. 

Doing so could extend what was expected to be a short-term shutdown.

Scott said congressional Democrats would “NEVER fund DHS” and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He voted against the package twice, arguing that the spending levels would further bloat the nation’s eye-popping $38 trillion national debt, and that the billions in earmarks betrayed Republicans’ previous vows of fiscal restraint.

“If House Republicans don’t put the DHS bill back in, add the SAVE America Act and remove the wasteful earmarks, Democrats win,” Scott said. “We must protect our homeland, secure our elections and end the reckless spending NOW!”

Keep reading

Trump to sign executive order mandating voter ID: ‘NO EXCEPTIONS’

President Donald Trump announced that he will sign an executive order requiring voters to present identification in all U.S. elections, while also largely eliminating mail-in voting.

President Trump issued the announcement in a Saturday Truth Social post, stating: “Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!”

The president added that he will also remove the mail-in voting option, “Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!!!”

Keep reading

Redistricting Isn’t A ‘Threat To Democracy,’ But These 4 Dem Vote-Rigging Tactics Are

For a party that never stops lecturing Americans about “defending democracy,” Democrats sure spend a lot of time trying to undermine its outcomes. Whether it’s weaponizing the legal system to sideline their opponents, overturning voter-approved ID laws, or trying to scrap the Electoral College entirely, Democrats treat every election loss as a problem to be solved — by changing the rules. But let Republican voters in Texas elect lawmakers who — in compliance with a recent DOJ directive — draw new district maps and Democrats clutch their pearls. But it’s not redistricting that threatens “democracy” (in actuality, our constitutional republic), it’s Democrats’ never-ending crusade to manipulate the election rules until they guarantee permanent power.

Fifty-seven Texas House Democrats abandoned the state on Sunday and headed to Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts to protest a new redistricting proposal. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called a special legislative session to vote on new maps that would fall in line with both a recent Department of Justice finding that four districts were unlawfully gerrymandered on racial grounds as well as a Fifth Circuit Court ruling.

Democrats decided to flee the state to avoid voting on the maps.

“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said in a statement on Sunday. “We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said “everything” is on “the table” to “fight back,” and that this is “about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said “this is what fighting for our democracy looks like.” Newsom called it a “five-alarm fire for democracy in the United States of America.”

But for all the screeching the left does about “democracy,” they sure have had no problem upending it when it delivers outcomes they don’t like.

Keep reading

Federal Appeals Court Rules Texas Can Enforce Law Requiring ID For Mail-In Ballots

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday ruled Texas can enforce a law requiring ID numbers for mail-in ballots.

A three-judge panel unanimously overturned a lower court’s block on the state’s mail-in ballot requirements.

The three judges included: Judge James Ho (Trump), Judge Don Willett (Trump), and Judge Patrick Higginbotham (Reagan).

“We have no difficulty concluding that this ID number requirement fully complies with a provision of federal law known by the parties as the materiality provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” the judges ruled.

“The ID number requirement is obviously designed to confirm that each mail-in ballot voter is precisely who he claims he is. And that is plainly “material” to “determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote,”” the judges worote.

“The district court reached the opposite conclusion. So we reverse and render judgment for Defendants,” they said.

Politico reported:

A federal appeals court has ruled that Texas may enforce a state law that invalidates mail-in ballots submitted without a voter’s state identification number or partial Social Security number.

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the requirement the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021 as part of an election-integrity bill known as SB1 did not violate a federal law preventing states from imposing voting requirements “not material” to the validity of ballots.

In a brusque, nine-page opinion, Judge James Ho twice said the appeals panel had “little difficulty” concluding that Texas’ law was valid.

“The number-matching requirements are obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is who he claims he is,” Ho wrote for the panel. “And that is plainly material to determining whether an individual is qualified to vote.”

Keep reading

Wisconsin Votes to Enshrine Voter Photo ID Law in State Constitution

Wisconsin voters approved a ballot measure on Tuesday that enshrines into the state Constitution the photo identification requirement in order to cast a ballot.

Approximately 63 percent of voters supported the ballot measure, while around 37 percent voted against it, according to an unofficial tally by The Associated Press.

Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), who co-authored the amendment, said the voter photo ID requirement will now become “the law of the land no matter the political whims of the Supreme Court or Legislature.”

“I want to thank the voters for overwhelmingly putting Voter ID into the constitution,” he stated on social media platform X. “Every elected Democrat and Susan Crawford oppose it.”

Judge Crawford is the Democrat-backed candidate who won the Wisconsin Supreme Court race on Tuesday, defeating Brad Schimel, a former attorney general who had President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

The requirement for voters to show valid photo identification before casting a ballot is already mandated by state law, which was passed in 2011 and went into effect in 2016. Adding it to the state Constitution will make it more difficult for the Legislature or courts to change it in the future.

Keep reading

Voter ID Alone Won’t Make Pennsylvania’s Elections Trustworthy

Pennsylvania, which cemented itself as a true swing state in the last few presidential elections, does not currently require voter ID at the polls, other than for first-time voters. The rumblings about the need for Pennsylvania voter ID are intensifying, and yet another in a long string of bills was just introduced.

Social media punditry — by self-proclaimed experts — would lead the casual observer to believe that voter ID is the answer to all election integrity woes in the United States. While requiring voters to prove they are who they say they are does make elections more secure, the reality tends to be more complicated, especially in Pennsylvania. The state’s elected Republicans should understand that voter ID by itself will not solve Pennsylvania’s election integrity challenges — larger reform is needed.

While the Keystone State actually has a voter ID law on the books, signed into law in 2012 by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, it has never been enforced due to lawsuits immediately filed against it, eventually resulting in a court order declaring it unconstitutional. The legal hijinks that resulted in the invalidation of the law irritated the Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature, resulting in many new proposals for Voter ID laws that never made it past the drawing board, thwarted by Democrats in the legislature and by Democrat governors.

Keep reading

Dems Fight Voter ID Amendment In Wisconsin Despite 7 In 10 Voters Supporting It

On April 1, Wisconsin voters will have the opportunity to enshrine a voter ID measure into the state’s constitution. 

Voters will be asked whether the state’s founding document should be amended to require voters “present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election,” with this requirement being “subject to exceptions which may be established by law.” In a recent poll among registered Wisconsin voters conducted by The Marquette Law School, 73 percent of respondents said they support the proposed voter ID amendment. In addition, more recent national polls have found that at least 80 percent of Americans support voter ID.

But despite voter ID policy popularity both statewide and nationally, Democrats are fighting the referendum soon to appear on the Wisconsin ballot.

The ballot proposal was approved by the Republican-led Assembly “with no support from Democrats,” CBS News reported in January. While there are presently no legal challenges to the current voter ID laws already in place in the state, “Democrats said photo ID requirements are often enforced unfairly, making it more difficult for people of color, the disabled and poor people to vote,” according to the outlet. They also “argued that lawmakers should focus instead on other issues such as gun control, clean water, affordable housing, and expanding access to child care.”

Multiple left-leaning voter activist groups have also come out against the proposal. Souls To The Polls Wisconsin, a purportedly “left-of-center” get out the vote group, called the referendum “harmful” in a social media post last month.

“This newest amendment proposal would enshrine Wisconsin’s strict voter ID law in the state constitution–disenfranchising thousands of eligible voters and limiting the court’s ability to protect our voting rights,” the post reads.

The executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), Nick Ramos, similarly suggested to a local NBC affiliate that the referendum would “make it harder for people to vote.” (According to conservative watchdog InfluenceWatch, WDC has a history of “target[ting] the financial supporters of Republican and conservative policy leaders” and pursues policy goals “decidedly left-of-center.”)

In addition, the Wisconsin chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a “nearly 100-year-old left-leaning activism organization,” according to InfluenceWatch, issued a statement in February urging voters to vote “no” on the measure, arguing that voter ID laws “disenfranchise” voters. The ACLU of Wisconsin Union along with more than 20 other organizations also signed onto a joint letter opposing the measure last month. WDC and Souls to the Polls Wisconsin are also among the signers.

Keep reading

California Rings In The New Year With New Push To Block Voter Identification

In California, Democrats are ringing in the New Year with a new push against voter identification. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has been hammering Huntington Beach because the city recently amended its municipal laws to require basic voter identification.

While voters overwhelmingly support voter identification, Democrats in California recently passed a law making it a crime to ask for voter identification at polling places. Now, Bonta is asking for an appellate court to intervene to prevent Huntington Beach from asking for IDs before people vote.

After Huntington Beach passed Measure A requiring voter identification in 2026, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning voter identification requirements. Bonta then sued the city but the California Superior Court ruled it too soon for a lawsuit. California Superior Court Judge Nico Dourbetas wrote that “this matter is not ripe for adjudication, as [the change to] the City’s Charter is permissive and discretionary in character, and thus currently presents no conflict with state elections law.”

Bonta, however, wants a ruling to prevent voter identification before the 2026 elections.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber insisted that  California residents are already required to verify their identity when they register to vote, but the city argues that it does not mean that the person voting is that same person.

Democrats have continued to block voter identification laws and policies despite Gallop and other polling showing as much as 80 percent of Americans support voter identification laws across party lines. The Biden Administration was widely criticized for its effort to prevent Virginia from removing the names of people who previously stated that they were not U.S. citizens.

Keep reading

Fact Check: MOSTLY TRUE

Snopes has done a helpful fact check on this: Misleading Post Says Harris Only Won in States Not Requiring Voter ID in 2024. If you read the Snopes post, what you’ll quickly see is that, while the claim is not strictly true, it’s MOSTLY true. Snopes even adds the useful information that PA only requires ID for first-time voters—otherwise, no ID. So, look at it this way. CA, NY, IL, MA give the Dems one helluva guaranteed head start on the popular vote and electoral vote combined. New York City, LA, Chicago, Boston, San Fran. That head start—call it the Blue Wall—allows the Dems to reallocate resources to peel off a few other states, by hook or by crook.

What does this tell you about how elections have been going since, say, 2008? And especially in 2020? You don’t have to deny all American demographic dynamics to see the degree of corruption here. Of course there are large numbers of foolish people across the country. What voter ID laws do is blunt the worst effects of human nature in the context of electoral processes. Do Big Cities vote heavily Blue, for all sorts of reasons? Yes, of course they do. But do the majority of the biggest cities also happen to be situated mostly in non-ID states? And have those states become the epicenter of election fraud? That’s like asking, is it coincidence that Dems so rabidly oppose honest voting rolls and registration and ID laws, and so viciously slander those who work for honest elections?

Trump’s 2016 win was the shot across the Ruling Class bow that led to the over the top 2020 steal—not even subtle. One commentator pointed out that, in a sense, Zhou saved the Dems for four years because, but for Zhou, they would have had to run Bernie, and how do you pull off a steal for Bernie? Hello, Bill Barr and Mitch McConnnell—and many others. You think they didn’t know all this?

Keep reading

Huh? Kamala Won’t Support Voter ID Because Rural Americans Don’t Have Access To Photocopy Machines

Speaking with Black Entertainment Television (BET) on Tuesday evening, Democrat presidential selectee Kamala Harris explained she doesn’t agree with voter ID laws because some Americans would allegedly have to “photocopy” their driver’s license while being unable to access a Xerox machine.

“I don’t think that we should underestimate what that [voter ID] could mean. Because, in some people’s minds, that means, ‘Well, you’re gonna have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove you are who you are.’ Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don’t, there’s not Kinko’s, there’s no OfficeMax near them,” Harris stated.

She continued, “People have to understand that when we’re talking about voter ID laws, be clear about who you have in mind and what would be required of them to prove who they are. Of course, people have to prove who they are, but not in a way that makes it almost impossible for them to prove who they are.”

The notion that rural Americans cannot photocopy their IDs is outdated as the majority of people nowadays can simply take a photo of their ID with their cell phone.

Keep reading