The judge is a Clinton appointee. The case was brought by Marc Elias's firm. And the reasoning is the reasoning conservatives have been fighting for years: that requiring proof of citizenship at a motor vehicle office overreaches what the National Voter Registration Act allows.
Robert McNeely ran for the Georgia House, and Jenny Beth Martin asks him what a rules change like this actually does to a campaign. His answer is about turnout. A midterm is a low-propensity election, which means everything rides on getting people who agree with you to show up at all, and moving the rules while that is happening makes it harder, especially down ballot.
Then Jenny Beth Martin tells the origin story. The SAVE America Act, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, started on a coalition conference call with Senator Mike Lee. Cleta Mitchell was describing what was happening in Arizona, and Jenny Beth Martin asked Senator Lee to write a bill to fix it.
Here is what she was asking him to fix. Arizona, a border state, passed a statewide referendum requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, after the National Voter Registration Act was already law. It was challenged. It went to the Supreme Court, and the Court held Arizona still had to accept registrations submitted under the federal motor voter law. So Arizona built a bifurcated ballot. Show proof of citizenship and you vote all the way down to precinct committeeman. Do not show it and you still vote for president, Senate and Congress.
Under the motor voter law you check a box affirming you are a citizen. You do not show proof. Jenny Beth Martin's argument is that this puts legal residents in real jeopardy: some receive a voter registration card they never asked for, believe they are allowed to vote, and put their own path to citizenship at risk.
Robert McNeely closes it out with Alaska, where the state's own elections website tells recipients that a voter registration card does not mean they may vote, and with three ballots for prior residents that arrived in his own Anchorage mailbox.
Sign up to work or watch the polls at helpatthepolls.com. Call your senators and your representative at 202-224-3121. More at jennybethshow.com and teapartypatriots.org.
00:00 — A Federal Judge Blocks Ohio
00:35 — What a Rules Change Does to a Turnout Election
01:33 — A Clinton Appointee, and Marc Elias's Firm
02:02 — How the SAVE America Act Began
02:36 — Arizona Passed a Referendum, and It Got Challenged
03:20 — The Bifurcated Ballot
04:16 — You Check a Box Instead of Proving It
04:36 — Take This Case Back to the Supreme Court
05:16 — The People Who Never Knew They Were Registered
05:50 — Alaska's Own Elections Website Says So
06:53 — Three Ballots in One Mailbox
07:13 — A Purple City That Trusted Nothing
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