UMass Dartmouth Professor Explains Why SAVE Act Faces Long Odds

President Donald Trump said he won't sign another bill until the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act lands on his desk. Judging by the outlook in Congress, the president may be waiting quite awhile.

What UMass Professor Ken Manning Says About the SAVE Act

The legislation is currently in the U.S. Senate, and needs 60 votes for passage. That's a tall task, according to UMass Dartmouth Political Science Professor Ken Manning, who spoke with Townsquare Sunday.

"A lot of what this bill proposes hasn't been done on the national level before," Manning said. "This legislation would require people to provide proof of citizenship in person when registering to vote, and showing a government-issued ID when voting, something that's not required now."

Manning: Why the Bill Raises Constitutional Concerns

"The bill also requires states to report their voting rolls to the Department of Homeland Security. This is unprecedented," Manning said. "Under the Constitution, state governments run elections, and being required to turn over such information to the federal government would likely be declared unconstitutional."

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The bill also would end almost all mail-in voting, except for those serving in the military overseas, or people with disabilities.

"It would be a revolutionary piece of legislation, were it to pass," Manning said. "That said, however, the political prospects of this legislation are pretty dim."

Manning on How the SAVE Act Could Impact Voters

Manning believes the primary aim of this bill is to make it much more difficult for people to vote. "It would effectively make it difficult for lower-income voters, lower-educated voters to participate in the process, and in general would tend to benefit Republicans," he said.

Why Manning Says the SAVE Act Is Unlikely to Pass

"Republicans have 53 votes in the Senate, but there's no way on God's green earth that seven Democrats are going to flip over and support this bill," Manning said. "So the legislation's prospects are pretty much D.O.A., or close to it, because as it's written now, there's not enough Democrats to support it."

According to Manning, Republican leaders appear to have no appetite to change the rules in the Senate and allow the bill to pass by a simple majority. "Ultimately, it's a futile effort by the Trump Administration," he said.

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