CD-3 House Representative Jeff Hurd voted with other House Republicans on February 11 to pass H.R. 7296, a Trump-backed voter restriction bill, the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act” or “SAVE Act,” that would make it harder for millions of Americans to vote by requiring people show “documentary proof” of U.S. citizenship in person when registering to vote, and by requiring people to show photo IDs to vote in federal elections. Acceptable IDs would have to reflect the current name of the voter, not names they were given at birth or maiden names. The bill would also tightly restrict the kinds of documents that would be eligible to prove citizenship, for example student IDs or drivers licenses, even ones with Real ID, would not be acceptable. Instead, people would have to show their birth certificates, unexpired passports or military IDs.
Election experts estimate that about 21 million Americans would be disenfranchised by this bill because they don’t have ready access to documents that would be acceptable to prove citizenship.
In particular the bill would place a heavier burden on tens of millions of married women who changed their names after they got married, since they would also be required to show a marriage certificate in order to establish citizenship. Others who would be negatively affected by the bill’s requirements would include adoptees who changed their names to benefit family cohesion; people who changed foreign-sounding names to Americanized versions of their names to better “fit into” American society or to avoid discrimination; transgender people who legally changed their names to reflect their preferred gender identity or people who were given unusual names or names with unusual spellings at birth and who legally changed their names later in life to more familiar or easier-to-spell versions of their names to make their lives easier, etc.
The bill came to a vote in the House just days after Trump, in a podcast, urged Republicans to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states he did not name, which he falsely claimed were riddle with voter fraud.
The vote passed the GOP-dominated House by a thin margin of 216-214.
The “show your papers” bill now faces a steep uphill battle in the closely divided Senate.
This year I will use my vote-by-mail/ballot box (if trump hasn’t succeeded in ending vote by mail (though he and all his family and oligarch pals use vote by mail), to VOTE HURD OUT FOR GOOD.
The Heritage Foundation conducted a study on non-citizen voting covering 20 years across the US, from 2003 thru 2023. They found 23 documented cases of non-citizen voting.
Trump’s Presidential Commission looked into this in 2017, found nothing, issued no report and disbanded quietly after 8 months in early 2018.
This is a non-issue for rational Americans, but for the Trump cult it is all about casting doubt on the next election to start this circus all over again!
Hurd is a POS!
Good! One thing he’s done right.
Only U.S. citizens should be allowed to vote, and showing ID should be required, just like it is to get something as basic as a library card.
Only American citizens CAN vote. That’s the law, and the Right has never been able to prove any fraud significant enough to change the results of an election.
Hurd just was one of only 6 GOP reps to oppose tariffs with Canada…good job Jeff!
But I’m not surprised he voted for the SAVE act. It disenfranchises thousands of (mostly Democrat) potential voters who lack passports or drivers’ licenses. Ingenious way for the Epstein-Musk-billionaire class to restrict their opponents’ right to vote. Once again, we see who Jeff Hurd’s true constituents are.
Vote Hurd out!