Here’s Why the SCOTUS Ruling on Voter Verification Matters, One Expert Says

Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the Trump administration can continue to use a modified systematic alien verification database to confirm the citizenship of voters. Experts say the ruling could play a crucial role in securing the integrity of the midterm elections.

“The fact that DHS and this administration is going to utilize the information it gathered to try and help clean up some of these voter rolls and prevent illegal aliens from getting ballots in the first place is a huge step forward,” Hogan Gidley, vice chair of secure elections policy at America First Policy Institute, said during a Monday appearance on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.”

In March, President Donald Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to put a system in place allowing state and local governments to prevent illegal immigrants from voting in elections.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements initiative, known as SAVE, “uses online systems to check information about a benefit applicant’s immigration status or naturalized or derived United States citizenship against records contained in relevant immigration databases.”

In June, SAVE was blocked by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C. Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, wrote in her opinion, “All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote. This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens,” leading to a halt in the initiative.

Gidley explained that SAVE exists to protect the integrity of U.S. elections. “Democrats have taken the wrong side of so many of these issues. Instead of standing up with safe and secure American communities, they’re fine with letting out criminals. Instead of saying, ‘We need to make sure these elections are protected,’ they’re fine with putting people on the [voter] rolls that don’t need to be there.”

The election security expert contended that other countries have safeguards against noncitizens voting, and America should be no exception. “We have way too many people in this country casting ballots that don’t have a right to do so. … I don’t think if you went to Germany, they would let you vote in their elections, or France. You couldn’t vote in their elections, or [in] Italy for that matter. So, the fact [that] we let people in this country who are not citizens vote in our elections is absolutely insane. And a vast majority of the American people know that, and [Democrats] reject it.”

In July, a Fox News poll found that roughly 83% favor requiring photo identification to register to vote and 77% to cast a ballot. “Support for requiring photo ID to vote has remained consistently high, between 77% to 85%, in Fox News polling since 2011,” the network additionally reported.

Gidley asserted that the SCOTUS ruling could help move the needle in the right direction, just weeks before what some predict could be a “bloodbath” midterm election cycle. “When I’m on TV and these liberal reporters say there was some illegal voting… but it’s not enough to affect the outcome of the election, I say, ‘First of all, how many illegal votes are okay? Is it one? Is it 100? Because a single illegal vote that is cast by someone who doesn’t have a right to do so cancels out your vote.’ And I think that’s quite frankly egregious.”

“But moving forward, I think this election cycle is going to be clunky because a lot of these states are going to try and fight against it,” Gidley added. “Blue states aren’t going to accept it, per usual. They’re going to fight the courts and allow people who shouldn’t vote the opportunity to do so. And I think that’s just wrong.”

AUTHOR

Quinn Delamater

Quinn Delamater is a reporter for The Washington Stand.

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