Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha criticized Democrats for opposing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, arguing that the party has said before that voter ID laws are voter suppression.
The Republican-controlled House passed the SAVE Act on Wednesday, with only one Democrat supporting the legislation. It would require states to provide proof of citizenship to register and to present an ID to cast a ballot.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Concha said on Fox News’s America Reports Thursday. “Four, five years ago, we heard this hyperbole, this inaccurate reference to Jim Crow 2.0 when it comes to so-called voter suppression.”
Democrats have continued to slam the bill, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calling the legislation “Jim Crow 2.0,” according to the Hill.
Concha pointed to Georgia’s 2021 election bill, the Election Integrity Act, which Democrats also said would suppress votes.
“President [Joe] Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris, at the time invoked Jim Crow, and many in the media echoed that sentiment,” Concha said. “Then, John [Roberts, co-host of America Reports], a funny thing happened: Georgia actually held elections under the new voting laws.”
“And every voting record had in modern history were blown out in terms of turnout — no one reported anything around suppression or not being able to vote,” he added.
Concha argued that Americans from both parties support voter ID.
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According to a Pew Research survey of 3,554 U.S. adults, more than 9 in 10 Republicans (95%) and about 7 in 10 Democrats (71%) favor showing government-issued photo ID to vote.
“Nearly 9 in 10 basically now can support voter ID … including an overwhelming majority of blacks and Latinos, even Democratic voters,” Concha said. “If this is the hill the blue team wants to die on, it shows they’re probably just, I don’t know, high on their own supply at this point.”
