Noncitizen Voters and SAVE America Act
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherill on July 21 announced a “software error” at the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission that registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens to vote despite their having marked “no” when asked if they were U.S. citizens. About 400 then cast ballots.
The error happened between June 2023 and June 2024, before Sherill took office.
Some people applying for driver’s licenses indicated they weren’t citizens and weren’t eligible to vote, but the software registered them anyway. That problem wasn’t fixed for a year. The state is now removing those people from the voter file.
Sherill blames the vendor responsible for the system for the snafu and the vendor blames state employees. Her chief counsel is investigating.
New Jersey’s screw-up is another reminder that illegal voting isn’t a myth. If Democrats won’t scrub state voter rolls because President Trump says so, they should do it for their state’s election credibility.
Nevadans should pay attention.
In 2018, Nevada voters passed Question 5 that created Automatic Voter Registration through the DMV. It runs its own version of the same system used in New Jersey.
When paperwork is completed for a license or ID, and unless you opt out, your information gets sent directly to the Secretary of State’s office to register you to vote.
It’s all automated software. It can fail—and did fail in New Jersey. There’s room for improvement with some states more vigilant in auditing their voter lists.
The Department of Homeland Security in a July 16 letter sent to Nevada’s Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, alleges as many as 15,903 noncitizens may be registered to vote in Nevada.
Of those, DHS said 8,576 Nevada registrants had a name, date of birth, address and Social Security number that matched a noncitizen in federal immigration files.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin urged the state to work with his staff on identity verification and said they are willing to provide Nevada with immigration records to help the process.
Democrat Aguilar dismissed the letter as “another attempt” to cast doubt on elections.
“We can affirm that on its face, we refute these claims,” Aguilar said about the letter. “These numbers are wildly speculative at best.”
Illegal voting is real. It also isn’t the massive conspiracy Trump likes to conjure in the minds of his supporters.
Trump used a July 16 prime-time address about election security to make a sales pitch for a bill that can’t pass.
The SAVE America Act lacks the 60-vote threshold to overcome a Senate Democratic filibuster. It even fails to win majority support (50+ votes) from Republicans, with defections from Sens. Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis.
“The only reason you wouldn’t do it is you want to cheat,” Trump said. “This landmark bill requires that all voters must show voter ID. How simple is that?”
He also called to ban mail ballots, “except for illness, disability, military deployment or travel.”
The public likes voter ID, with a Pew Research survey last year finding 83% of adults, and 71% of Democrats, favor it.
However, the SAVE America Act goes further, making most driver’s licenses insufficient to register to vote, and Trump’s push would override laws in both Democratic and GOP states that offer mail ballots for voter convenience.
Senator Tillis highlights that even if Congress passed the bill immediately, it’s logistically impossible to implement before November. The midterms are less than 100 days away; early voting starts sooner.
“The math doesn’t work,” Tillis says. “It can’t be done.”
Unfortunately, Trump’s message has been that elections can’t be trusted, and the only hope is the SAVE America Act.
Aside from being untrue, this will backfire on the GOP if their voters believe it and the bill fails to pass.
Discouraged Republicans will ask: Why should we even vote in November?
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
