Updated
Updated · Al Jazeera English · Aug 18
Trump Renews SAVE America Act Push, Citing India’s 646 Million-Voter ID System
Updated
Updated · Al Jazeera English · Aug 18

Trump Renews SAVE America Act Push, Citing India’s 646 Million-Voter ID System

3 articles · Updated · Al Jazeera English · Aug 18

Summary

  • Trump used a Truth Social post to argue the US should tighten election rules, saying India’s last election drew 646 million voters, required photo ID and had mail voting below 1%.
  • The SAVE America Act passed the Republican-led House in February and would require documentary proof of US citizenship to register for federal elections, while also tightening identification rules for in-person and mail ballots.
  • Critics say the bill targets turnout rather than fraud: non-citizen voting is already illegal, and Brennan Center research found studied voter-fraud rates between 0.0003% and 0.0025%.
  • India’s system offers a more mixed model than Trump suggests, with opposition parties alleging duplicate voter IDs and manipulated rolls, while recent voter-roll revisions removed 4.7 million names in Bihar and stripped about 9 million people in West Bengal of voting rights.

Insights

How does linking voter eligibility to welfare benefits in large democracies reveal the hidden dangers of strict electoral roll revisions?