President Trump and many Republicans are so concerned with undocumented people voting that they want to make it harder for the rest of us who are eligible to vote to be able to cast a ballot.

If passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, more commonly called the SAVE Act, were to be passed, you would have to prove you are an American citizen before you could register to vote.

Proponents of the SAVE Act are right when they point out that Voter ID is very popular in America. But the SAVE Act isn’t voter ID. Most states already have that. No, the SAVE Act is voter ID on steroids.

Proponents will also try to convince you that the SAVE Act is a good thing by pointing out that you must show your ID before you can get on a plane.

Again, the SAVE Act is NOT voter ID, and there is no Constitutional right to get on a plane. Voting is a right.

But the SAVE Act is making it harder for folks to get on a plane. (I’ll explain in a bit)

The SAVE Act states that you must prove you are an American citizen by showing your birth certificate, passport, or military ID to be eligible to register.

Currently, a majority of Americans register to vote online or by mail. If the SAVE Act passes, you’ll have to register in person.

The SAVE Act is not designed to guarantee voter integrity; it’s designed to suppress voter turnout. Plain and simple.

This past weekend, I spoke to some friends who argued that the SAVE Act is not about voter suppression. They bought into the Republican and FOX News talking points that illegal immigrants are committing massive voter fraud by turning up at the polls.

I pointed out that it’s hard enough to get Americans to vote, let alone non-citizens. I also mentioned that the Heritage Foundation itself has dug deep and found no significant voter fraud.

They grudgingly agreed with me on both those points.

I then asked if they knew where their birth certificate was.

They didn’t.

I continued my argument by telling them that I didn’t know where my birth certificate was either. And that if I needed to present one before I could sign up to vote, I would have to contact the Cuyahoga County Commissioner in Cleveland, Ohio to have them send me one.

I then wondered how the Commissioner would know it was really me asking for it and not some fraudster. Maybe they would make me send a picture of my driver’s license. Maybe they would just send it to me without having to prove I was who I said I was.

I doubt they would have made me send in a DNA sample, but these days you never know.

Regardless of what hoops I’d have to jump through, I know for a fact they would have charged me to get it. I’m not sure how much, but if they charged me as much as a penny, that would be a poll tax.

And poll taxes are illegal.

And then, assuming I got it before the deadline to register had expired, I would have to go to the election commission or the DMV to show it to them to qualify for my constitutional right.

My closing argument was that by making it harder to register, they were making it harder to vote, and therefore, the SAVE Act was indeed about voter suppression.

I’m not sure I convinced them. I do hope that I at least gave them something to think about.

But making it harder for people to vote isn’t the only thing President Trump wants to make it harder to do. He also wants to make it harder for people to get through airport security.

President Trump isn’t budging on his demand for the Senate to pass the SAVE Act. He refuses to sign a deal to end the partial government shutdown until it’s passed. But it needs 60 votes in the Senate, and as of now, he doesn’t have it.

So while the president obsesses about a virtually non-existent threat to voter security, he allows a very real threat to airport security to continue to get worse.

I don’t know how all this is going to end. Will enough Democrats be forced to support this bad legislation so that TSA agents can get paid? Will airports need to shut down before President Trump backs down and ends the partial shutdown?

It’s amazing how a problem that doesn’t exist can cause real problems that do.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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