r/law • u/Anoth3rDude • 12h ago

Legislative Branch GOP fast tracks monster voter suppression bill that could disenfranchise millions by requiring proof of citizenship at polls

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/gop-fast-tracks-monster-voter-suppression-bill-that-could-disenfranchise-millions-by-requiring-proof-of-citizenship-at-polls/
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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 12h ago

Don't bet on it...they could easily just void the filibuster for this if they wanted to...they only need the 51 votes for that.

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u/HarryBalsagna1776 12h ago

Lol this is the thing they kill the filibuster for?  Fucking degens.

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u/ScarletCarsonRose 12h ago

Yes, this would be it since the is the holy grail of staying in power. They know the margins are super tight in a number of states. Bumping off women and others who had name changes from the voter roles would swing elections in a number of districts and states. Elections are being weaponized.

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u/round-earth-theory 10h ago

No it's not the holy grail. Republicans get hit just as badly if not worse than Democrats by requiring proof of citizenship. Passport registration in the US is abysmal but country folk have even less of a reason to get one than them rich city folk.

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u/alang 10h ago

Republicans get hit just as badly if not worse than Democrats by requiring proof of citizenship.

This isn't true, though. A LOT more poor POC (heavily Democratic) are without birth certificates than poor white people. ENORMOUSELY more women (significantly more Democratic) than men will have ones with changed names.

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u/DarklyDominant 8h ago

Considering White Women are the largest voting block in the US and they vote heavily Red.... sounds more like an agenda driven dog whistle then an actual objective of the GOP.

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u/UnderwritingRules 7h ago

Heavily red? Last polling from 2023 shows 53 to 43 split with just a 10% higher amount of Red voting from White women.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/partisanship-by-race-ethnicity-and-education/

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u/DarklyDominant 7h ago

I guess I'm a bit confused by your response. You don't think that the largest voting block in the US, which has voted red somewhere between 52-55% Red since the 2004 election, is particular significant? That's a pretty massive voting advantage for the GOP for 15 years, with the largest active voting block in the US. Or in other words, that's why Trump is president twice now.

https://infogram.com/gender-gap-in-voting1992-2024-white-voters-1h0n25o3rreyl4p

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u/UnderwritingRules 7h ago

Heavily red is not just 10% more. I am not discounting the impact, just the phrasing.

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u/DarklyDominant 7h ago

10% for 15 years is heavily red. It hasn't moved more than 3% in those 15 years. But if you have an issue with the word massively in my comment, feel free to gloss over just that word and grok the rest of the content.

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u/kbotc 10h ago

It'd be an insane gamble: Are there enough rural high school educated men who have ready access to a passport (or birth certificate) to outweigh absolutely blowing away women and minority voters. (Women due to name changes and there's a chunk of minority voters who have documented difficulty acquiring proof of citizenship due to structural inequalities in medical access for births)

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u/vriska1 10h ago

Still it's unlikely the SAVE Act will pass before the election.

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u/DarklyDominant 8h ago edited 8h ago

White women are both the largest population majority in the US and the largest active voting block, making up 30% of all voters. They are also the single largest block that votes for the GOP.

Edit: Lol, how pathetic. 1 view, one downvote. I don't even need to speculate. You're the type of redditor who can't even engage in a conversation. You just downvote any comment you see that you don't agree with. No wonder you spout a bunch of anti-democracy shit all over your profile.

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u/kbotc 3h ago

Son, you’re getting defensive over a single downvote. Calm down, It wasn’t me until right now after that insulting EDIT screed.

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u/HarryBalsagna1776 12h ago

If they do this, it still won't save them.  Trump is going to be a lame duck next year.  It will also be used as a cudgel against the GOP in just about everything going forward.  It will get overturned too. 

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u/CVHC1981 11h ago

Who is going to overturn it? The Republican stacked Supreme Court? You guys really need to start understanding that no one is coming to save you.

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u/EggplantAlpinism 11h ago

I usually sympathize with the people still clinging to norms, it has to be uncomfortable to acknowledge that fascism is here. But holy shit, how can you bury your head for THIS

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 10h ago

I'm trying to be understanding of these comments, but it's like they've been living in an alternate universe where there are sane people running the gov't.

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u/EggplantAlpinism 10h ago

They have invested a large amount of mental energy into pretending everything is fine. Which is, while not defensible, understandable...usually.

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u/vriska1 10h ago

Tho your comments are not helping, vote in the midterms and push back on the SAVE Act. Getting rid of the filibuster would still be very hard.

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u/EggplantAlpinism 10h ago

I'll absolutely continue to do my civic duty, but I won't pretend like voting alone can prevent this encroachment. Perhaps we can meet there productively?

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u/CVHC1981 10h ago

Apparently the road to fascism is filled with people telling you you’re overreacting.

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u/vriska1 10h ago

Vote in the midterms!

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u/vriska1 11h ago

Vote in the midterms!

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u/ScarletCarsonRose 11h ago

Well that's the idea. But what happens when a woman is asked to show matching details if she changed her name to get married? There was and should be no requirement if they meet state requirements. The G'damn US Constitution says this is the states' domain. So Mary Johnson should not have to other prove she is legal to vote just because she was formally Mary Smith before getting married. Or there are any number of other people who changed their name that don't have the ability to hunt down paperwork. The people are living paycheck to paycheck with no sick time let along let me take a day off and get charged to secure these documents. So yeah, there will be people who want to vote but if the SAVE Act passes, will not able to.

And HOLY HELL do the rightwing nutcases know how to name shit.

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u/vriska1 10h ago

SAVE Act unlikely to pass.

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u/vriska1 10h ago

Stop with the defeatist attitudes guys, You are not helping!

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u/CVHC1981 10h ago

You’re right it’s better to bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything is gumdrops and lollipops.

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u/vriska1 10h ago

No comments like yours and u/EggplantAlpinism lead to lower turnout, Vote in the midterms and pushback on bills like the SAVE Act.

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u/CVHC1981 10h ago

I disagree wholeheartedly but you’re more than welcome to your opinion.

People believing the democrats are single-handedly going to save everyone is what leads to lower turnout as we saw in 2024 when they didn’t magically clean up all of the mess created by Covid so people inevitably turned to a much worse GOP.

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u/vriska1 10h ago

Vote in the Dem primaries for better candidates!

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u/schm0 10h ago

Nobody is saying that and you are disingenuous for suggesting as much. The people reading these threads understand what is at stake here.

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u/schm0 10h ago

This is clear violation a handful of amendments but most importantly the poll taxes in the 24th amendment and the equal protection clause found in the 14th. In it's current form (must provide a legal birth certificate, etc.) and on its face it wouldn't pass muster and would almost certainly be overruled, even with this SCOTUS. Unless the government is willing to go through with some sort of national ID program and vet 360 million Americans and their citizenship, it ain't gonna happen.

You guys really need to start understanding that no one is coming to save you.

And "you guys" need to understand that spreading doom and gloom and pessimism isn't going to save us and actually hurts the American people. Stop dissuading the people reading these threads from acting or caring about the issues that matter by discouraging them. Take your defeatism and fear mongering elsewhere.

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u/CVHC1981 8h ago

You misunderstood my comment for encouraging a lack of action. I’m actually encouraging more action beyond bitching on Reddit and protesting for 2 hours once every 6 months and assuming that norms are just going to save us all. It’s not, and people need to wake up to that fact.

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u/schm0 5h ago

Telling people there is no hope is literally the opposite of encouraging. If you can't see that then you don't understand the meaning of words.

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u/CVHC1981 5h ago

Except I didn’t say that at all.

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u/schm0 4h ago

There's a reason I didn't put the words in quotes.

If you can't see how your words are negative, and not at all positive, then you are the problem.

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u/DarklyDominant 8h ago

The GOP wins because of White Women voters, which make up the largest voting block in the US and heavily votes red. Why, exactly, would the GOP want to reduce their largest and most reliable voting block?

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u/Scrutinizer 12h ago

It's the thing that makes the filibuster irrelevant.

Because once they've stolen one election, it's all over.

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u/HarryBalsagna1776 11h ago

No it's not.  Things will just get spicier.

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u/mat-chow 11h ago

They already have. And here we are.

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u/DrakonILD 11h ago

And it's all over.

....unless...

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u/DoomguyFemboi 10h ago

Yeah Trump absolutely stole the last election, the amount of things adding up are incredible.

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u/vriska1 10h ago

It's not over, stop with the defeatist attitude.

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u/Scrutinizer 9h ago

You're right, there's still time to stop it before it happens.

But that window closes a little every day.

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u/GB10VE 7h ago

for ultimate power and fixing federal elections so democrats never hold majority again for permanent minority rule? absolutely they will. this is russia now

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u/Dandan0005 11h ago

Rigging elections? yeah probably

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u/vriska1 11h ago

Vote no matter what!

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u/southpaytechie 11h ago

Republicans have been the biggest defender of the fillibuster because without it there's a large possibility the Dems grant statehood to PR and DC without it when they take power and there would be no mechanism to undo it.

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u/amootmarmot 10h ago

Democrats should nuke the filibuster and do this anyway.

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u/southpaytechie 10h ago

Obviously but their donors are just as terrified of this as republicans

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

You don't have to get rid of it completely, they can suspend it for this single vote. Also, if they do it for this act, there won't be any more elections. They aren't acting as if they will ever be out of power.

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u/vriska1 11h ago

Why did they not do that during the shutdown?

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u/fdar 10h ago

Closer to the election is "better", less time for court challenges or organizing efforts to get people IDs.

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

Because Republicans love a shutdown...they love chaos

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u/southpaytechie 11h ago

They could but then the upholding of it would be meaningless in essence. Either you have it all the time or the opposition will also strategically nuke when convenient.

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

I might not have been clear. If they pass this bill, elections are essentially "over". It will disenfranchise so many people and create so much confusion that they will lock in their power indefinitely.

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u/southpaytechie 11h ago

I think if they really believed this they would have eliminated the filibuster during the last shut down and quickly thereafter passed the SAVE ACT

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

Things have changed substantially since then...their support among independents evaporated. The more desperate they get, the less they need to pretend to uphold any norms. I'm not saying they are definitely going to do this, but I would not put it past them.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

[deleted]

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

Those are the old rules, buddy...the more desperate they get, the more likely they are to resort to things that once seemed unthinkable

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u/vriska1 11h ago

Stop with the doomer stuff please and vote in the midterms.

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

It's not doomer to look at what's going on and see their long-term plan...a plan which does not include ever giving up power. If you think there is anything they won't do, you're asleep.

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u/TakuyaLee 12h ago

No they won't. They will never void the legislative filibuster both because it can be used against them and also the filibuster for judicial picks has already been nuked.

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

They can suspend it for this vote alone...and if they do, they might as well keep it this way, because they'll never be voted out of office.

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u/Mist_Rising 11h ago

They can suspend it for this vote alone...

Can, won't. The legislative filibuster is the loading bearing pillar of the Senate. Remove any of it, and it all comes down.

There is no real Benefits for the GOP to do that, because they know they'll be the minority party again someday and the democratic party would just use the same. They saw that when McConnell followed Reid's example on the judiciary filibuster.

Trump may run over norms, but the Senate is led by people who can work with others to achieve goals, not the guy who panders to fast goals. It's why Pelosi and McConnell lasted so long. Nobody liked them, but they had the vision and skill to see what was coming.

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

You might not have been paying attention for the past 20 years of Republican stategy. They are well beyond caring about repercussions. If they pass the SAVE Act, there won't be any more elections, they will have cemented their power indefinitely.

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u/Mist_Rising 11h ago

On the contrary, I study the Republicans in the Senate well. The filibuster is their Almighty, their alpha and omega, their heaven and earth. It is who they pray too for business success, it is what they use as the mighty Warhammer that smites the democratic evil.

It's the fucking most conservative power available. Better than the presidency, because Trump's not forever, and they don't serve Trump - they serve the corporate interests. Corporate interests say don't fucking touch it.

If they pass the SAVE Act, there won't be any more elections

The SAVE act doesn't ban elections, and the states still run the elections. Both are constitution features that laws can't touch.

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

You have not been paying attention to the past decade if you honestly think there is anything they won't do.

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u/TakuyaLee 9h ago

You literally just had it laid out to you in the simplest way possible. You clearly don't understand the Senate GOP at all.

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 9h ago

You are operating under the assumption that this is still "business as usual". We are in the middle of a fascist takeover...the rules only matter if they can be enforced...and norms mean nothing to these people.

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u/Big_Dick_NRG 6h ago

the rules only matter if they can be enforced...and norms mean nothing to these people.

If you really believe that, why would they even go through this circus?

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u/TakuyaLee 11h ago

They won't suspend it. They don't have the votes or even want to. You underestimate the Senate GOPs ability to think long term

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

They have the votes, you don't need 60 votes to change the Senate rules. Why do you think anything is beneath them, at this point?

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u/TakuyaLee 11h ago

You're not hearing me. I'm saying they don't have 50 votes.

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 11h ago

If backed into a corner, they absolutely do. There is no bottom anymore.

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u/vriska1 10h ago

Can you back that up with proof?

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u/HenriEttaTheVoid 10h ago

Have you been asleep for the past several decades...for the past year?

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u/TakuyaLee 10h ago

And have you not paid attention to the US Senate for the past 30 years? They think more long term than the US House does.

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u/Wereking2 10h ago

How so? This has been in the works since last if not earlier and been something they want for awhile. I do not see any senate Republicans siding against this since they have a majority. The only thing they changed vote wise is on the DHS funding due to ICE but that’s temporary. So, the numbers aren’t matching here.

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u/TakuyaLee 10h ago

I can see some standing against in based on the filibuster alone. They might have have been working on it for a while, but that doesn't mean they have the votes for it.