Beware the Coming Republican Voting Rights Legislation

Talking Feds

Harry Litman

Election, Government, January 6, Politics, Merrick Garland, Law, Harry Litman, Trump, News, Legal

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Harry talks with Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice, about the possibly imminent introduction by House of the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility” (SAVE) Act. The legislation, which passed the House last year but wasn’t taken up in the Senate, would require every citizen registering or re-registering to vote to produce a birth certificate or passport in order to vote. It’s defended as a way to ferret out voting by non-citizens, but that turns out to be a virtually non-existent problem, as does the casual charges by Trump and others of widespread voting fraud. The effect, and likely intent, of the legislation would be to disproportionately disenfranchise Democrats. Waldman explains the manifold problems the SAVE Act would engender, including huge headaches for state and local authorities.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Talking Fed's one-on-one, deep-dive discussions with national figures about the most fascinating
0:14.1	and consequential issues defining our culture and shaping our lives. I'm your host, Harry Littman. Welcome to another talking
0:24.2	feds one-on-one. House Republicans have been content to be pliable, even indolent, and have their
0:33.1	power usurped by Donald Trump for the most part, but with a few exceptions. And maybe one of the most
0:40.4	important is legislation that they passed last year and maybe introduced any day that goes to
0:51.2	voting rights, the so-called Save Act, that is basically a bucket list of provisions
0:59.7	to especially depress likely Democratic voters, but especially involving identification.
1:07.6	With the parties already on a knife's edge, it could have a huge ongoing impact.
1:13.2	So I think it's really important to understand what it does, how it works.
1:17.6	And I've asked and been delighted that he accepted, to my mind, the national expert on the law and really on voting rights generally. That's Michael Waldman. He's the
1:29.6	president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice. It's a nonpartisan law and policy
1:35.4	institute dedicated to strengthening democracy and justice. He's had many roles in government.
1:42.3	He was previously director of speech writing for President Bill Clinton, where we first met. He's had many roles in government. He was previously director of speech writing for President
1:45.2	Bill Clinton, where we first met. He's the author of Too Many Books to Count, including
1:50.4	The Supermajority, How the Supreme Court Divided America, and the Fight to Vote, among many
1:57.5	others. Michael Waldman, thanks so much for joining us. It's great to be with you. Thank you for having me.
2:03.3	All right. So let's jump right into the Save Act. That's one of these neat acronyms,
2:09.2	Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. H.R. 8281 was introduced last year and passed July in the house, introduced by Chip Roy.
2:21.7	So tell us about it.
2:24.9	I know it's just speculation, but there's at least some word on the ground.
2:30.5	If you read the vibrations, it could be introduced anytime.
2:34.0	That's just in the House.
	...

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