Democrats Don’t Even Know Their Own Election Laws

As conservatives continue to push for passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, Democrats insist that the legislation’s election integrity provisions are either redundant or outright voter suppression. But recent statements from both of Virginia’s U.S. senators seriously call into question whether elected Democrats have any idea what they’re talking about.

As AMAC Newsline previously reported, the SAVE America Act would require Americans to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote and present a photo ID to vote. It would also require states to take steps to remove non-citizens and deceased individuals from voter rolls and curb the practice of mass mail-in voting.

After previous versions of the SAVE America Act failed to pass the Senate, the House passed a spending bill that includes most of the legislation on July 15. However, it once again remains stalled in the Senate.

That hasn’t stopped elected Democrats from lying about Republicans supposedly trying to “disenfranchise” voters. But in doing so, Democrats have unintentionally revealed just how little they know about election laws in even their home states.

Exhibit A comes to us from Senator Mark Warner of Virginia – who is up for re-election this year. During an appearance on ABC News late last month, Warner confidently told host Jon Karl, “In Virginia, we have voter ID and photo ID.”

But as Karl quickly noted, that statement simply is not true. “I’m a Virginia voter. You don’t need to show a photo ID in Virginia,” Karl said. “There are a wide range of things you can show for ID, and if you don’t show one of those, you can sign an affidavit... But it’s not required.”

It’s bad enough for Virginians to have one of their senators embarrass himself on national television by not knowing his own state’s voter laws. But not to be outdone, Warner’s counterpart, Tim Kaine, said essentially the same thing during an appearance on Fox News Sunday a week later.

“As you know, Virginia has a voter ID law that’s sort of been acceptable, whether our governors are Democrats or Republicans, it’s worked,” Kaine claimed.

In this case, the host didn’t correct Kaine. But he was just as wrong as Warner, underscoring how uninformed Democrat senators appear to be. The very people blocking the SAVE America Act because they claim it isn’t necessary can’t even demonstrate basic knowledge of the laws on the books – and thus have no credibility when it comes to just how vulnerable America’s elections are. How many other Democrat senators are in the same boat?

Kaine and Warner have been repeating this falsehood for months. “[We] support reasonable steps that help maintain trust in our elections, including the voter identification requirements we already have in Virginia,” they stated in March.

If Warner and Kaine had done their homework, they would know that Virginia did have Voter ID until 2020, when Democrat Governor Ralph Northam repealed the state’s requirement.

In April 2020, Northam signed a law to “remove the requirement that voters show a photo ID prior to casting a ballot,” 13 News Now reported at the time. In 2022, Democrats killed an attempt by Republican legislators and new GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin to revive the ID requirement.

This left Virginia with a “Voter ID” law that has a loophole so large you could drive a truck through it.

Voters “will be asked to show one form of identification,” an explainer sheet from the Department of Elections says. But those who do not have a form of identification “may instead sign a statement, subject to felony penalties, that they are the named registered voter who they claim to be.”

In other words, anyone can simply walk into a Virginia polling place, sign a statement saying that they are who they say they are, and then cast a regular ballot that counts just like anyone else’s – no provisional ballot, no investigation, no follow-up. That’s it.

Moreover, Virginia even accepts utility bills and bank statements as ID, meaning that the state does not require a “photo ID,” as Warner claimed. It’s easy to imagine someone using a utility bill from a parent or grandparent who is not planning on voting to vote in their place.

Liberal groups say these lax policies are a good thing, with VoteRiders calling Virginia a “non-strict Voter ID state.”

“If you are a registered voter but do not present an acceptable ID at the polling place, you can vote a regular ballot by signing an ID Confirmation Statement affirming your identity,” the group states.

In effect, the “Voter ID” in Virginia is a sham, just like it is in many other blue states. They ask you for an ID, but if you don’t have one, you’re able to vote all the same. From a practical standpoint, there really isn’t even a point in asking anyone for an ID; it’s just performative.

This brings us to an alarming question when it comes to politicians like Kaine and Warner: are they trying to fool us, or are they really just that uninformed? It’s difficult to determine which answer is worse.