A House vote on a bill that would require proof of citizenship for voting in federal elections instantly became an issue in Arizona’s Senate race.
In a largely party-line 221-198 vote, the House passed a bill Wednesday to modify the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. Republicans argued that it was necessary to prevent noncitizen immigrants from voting. Democrats called it a move to put barriers in the way of voting and sow doubt about the results of elections.
Kari Lake, the front-runner in the Republican primary for Arizona’s open Senate seat, claimed that Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego’s vote against the bill would “allow illegal immigrants to vote in our elections” — even though noncitizen voting at the federal level is illegal under current law.
Gallego is the presumed Democratic nominee for the Senate seat.
“Our elections are sacred. We will NOT allow [President Joe] Biden and Gallego to water down our vote and disenfranchise American citizens,” Lake said in a statement. Lake previously battled to overturn Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election, and she then refused to accept the results of the 2022 election for governor of Arizona, which she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake’s final legal challenge to that election loss was dismissed in May 2023.
Gallego dismissed Lake’s argument.
“Of course only U.S. citizens should vote,” he said in a statement. “But this bill isn’t about that, it’s about making it harder for Arizonans to vote, including married women, servicemembers, Native Arizonans, seniors, and people with disabilities.”
Every Republican voted for the bill, while the Democrats broke 198-5 against it. The five Democrats who voted for it were Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez of Washington.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee hit Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Colin Allred of Texas, who are running for Senate in their respective states, saying they “just voted to make it easier for illegal immigrants to vote.”
The bill would require states to remove noncitizens from state voting rolls and provide states with access to federal databases to identify registered noncitizens. It also would allow private citizens to sue election officials who register individuals to vote without providing proof of citizenship and would establish criminal penalties for such actions.
Rep. Joseph D. Morelle, D-N.Y., the ranking member on the House Administration Committee, said the bill would create obstacles for those legally permitted to vote.
“Republicans have one objective here and that is to destroy faith in our democracy. Their goal is to scare Americans into believing that noncitizens are going to steal an election when they can’t even vote. If enacted, the SAVE Act will disenfranchise millions of American citizens,” Morelle said.
Morelle recently issued a report on barriers to voting among Native American populations, one of the groups Democrats argue could face further disenfranchisement under the House-passed bill.
Speaker Mike Mike Johnson, R-La., on the other hand, was criticizing the White House for Biden threatening to veto the measure, arguing that “military-aged males” are crossing the border “without any deterrence at all.”
“They’re not law-abiding citizens, my friends,” Johnson said on the House floor, “they’re illegal aliens and they should not be participating in the election.”
Victor Feldman contributed to this report.
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