Congressional officials have displayed disdain and contempt for the American people’s election security mandate. Safeguarding United States elections is a vital component of our representative government structure. The Constitution states: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations…” Per the Constitution, Congress has limited election involvement. This was a brilliant decision and a choice made to broadly keep federal officials from controlling elections and to ensure that Congressional elected officials could not maintain power through convoluted election law. The founders, each from different states, believed the states (each independent of centralized power and being closer to the people) would be better suited to ensure the people’s voice in federal and local government remained secure. However, the founding fathers were wise to make a provision for Congress to intervene, since as it has been proven, blanket nationwide application of laws regarding elections has been important in a few different scenarios. Examples include the fifteenth, nineteenth, and twenty-sixth amendments to the Constitution:

             Fifteenth Amendment (Ratified 1870)

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude--

             Nineteenth Amendment (Ratified 1920)

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

             Twenty-Sixth Amendment (Ratified 1971)

The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

             In case it isn’t abundantly clear, even the language in these amendments, ratified in the span of nearly two centuries from the Constitution’s ratification in 1788, is distinct in the wording. The right of citizens of the United States. Full stop! This is not a right given to people residing in our nation or those working on getting citizenship. It is a right for the citizens of our country. Those who are citizens of the United States are the individuals who should decide who will represent us in elected office. Representation in government is critically important, but only the citizens of the United States have the right to be represented. Non-citizens do not and should not be given access to the right of voting. Voting is a citizen only right!

             The SAVE Act, which has currently passed the House of Representatives, remains stalled in the Senate. Now, one can speculate that every single Republican Congressional member that helped pass the bill has a certain motivation to pass the bill. On the eve of another election, it sounds great during a campaign to say, “We passed the SAVE Act, we care about election security.” Meanwhile the Senate, who has fewer members running for re-election, stalls the bill and now progress on Americans election integrity concerns is halted, how convenient. Another thought is that members of the House of Representatives rotate in and out of office faster than senators, meaning addressing election security could be a higher priority to Republican Members of the House. In either case, the Senate is failing “We the People.”

             Evaluate this key statement made in the SAVE Act: “Under any method of voter registration in a State, the State shall not accept and process an application to register to vote in an election for Federal office unless the applicant presents documentary proof of United States citizenship with the application.” Do you agree that this should be the case? Here’s what Founding Father Samuel Adams said:¹ “Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual – or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” (Read the full paragraph below) Let each citizen… Samuel Adams clearly states that citizens will offer a vote. He doesn’t say, ‘let each man’ or ‘let each person’, he says, “Let each citizen.” It is proper and necessary that Congressional members step up and address the security concerns that Americans have surrounding election integrity. The SAVE Act is a phenomenal start and would massively assist in securing key question marks in our election process.

¹Samuel Adams in the Boston Gazette, April 16, 1781, The Writings of Samuel Adams, ed. Harry Alonzo Cushing (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907), IV:256.

¹ "I was sorry to hear, that the Number of Votes returned, the last Time, did not amount to a Quarter of the Number of qualified Electors in the Commonwealth. The Choice of Legislators, Magistrates and Governors, is surely a Business of the greatest Moment, and claims the Attention of every Citizen. The Framers of our Constitution, while they gave due Attention to Political were not forgetful of Civil Liberty—that personal Freedom and those Rights of Property, which the meanest Citizen is intitled to, and the Security of which is the great End of political Society. It was not indeed their Province to make particular Laws for these Purposes. To do this, and to provide for the equal and impartial Execution of such Laws, agreeable to the Constitution, is the Duty of the Legislature. Hence every Citizen will see, and I hope will be deeply impressed with a Sense of it, how exceedingly important it is to himself, and how intimately the welfare of his Children is connected with it, that those who are to have a Share in making as well as in judging and executing the Laws should be Men of singular Wisdom and Integrity. Such as are conscious that they are deficient in either of these Qualities, should even TREMBLE at being named as Candidates! I hope the great Business of Elections will never be left by the Many, to be done by the Few; for before we are aware of it, that few may become the Engine of Corruption—the Tool of a Junto.—Heaven forbid! that our Countrymen should ever be byass'd in their Choice, by unreasonable Predilections for any man, or that an Attachment to the Constitution, as has been the Case in other Countries, should be lost in Devotion to Persons. The Effect of this would soon be, to change the Love of Liberty into the Spirit of Faction. Let each Citizen remember, at the Moment he is offering his Vote, that he is not making a Present or a Compliment to please an Individual, or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn Trusts in human Society, for which he is accountable to GOD and his Country.”