From Heather Cox Richardson

“The SAVE America Act Trump wants is pretty openly a voter suppression measure: voting by undocumented immigrants is already virtually nonexistent, and it is already illegal. And the Brookings Institution reported in 2025 that only about four cases of mail fraud occur per 10 million mail-in ballots, or 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast. But Republicans are using the idea of voter fraud to argue for measures that could toss more than 21 million Americans off the voter rolls.
There is an especial irony in Trump attacking mail-in voting as fraudulent: Bill Barrow of the Associated Press reported today that Trump voted by mail in Tuesday’s elections in Florida. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales explained Trump’s position, saying that “the SAVE America Act has commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel—but universal mail-in voting should not be allowed because it’s highly susceptible to fraud.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/march-24-2026?r=1n9vvs&utm_medium=ios

Advocates offer the usual talking points about fraud, non-citizens opting, conspiracies by an unidentified radical group of “they” of one sort or another. Opponents cite statistics that disprove any actual evidence of fraud. But people other than the politicians can legitimately disagree on an issue.

Process and competence offer a powerful chance to save the act for advocates: don’t put it into effect before the midterms. Take your time, work out the details, remove the problems so there is no appearance of voter suppression. Fund and implement a universal identification provision effort to help every citizen have access and help in getting the id they need. Every citizen. What’s the rush? If your intention isn’t suppression, confusion and manipulation, and exclusion, then prove it. Remove the hurry.

Otherwise, it will appear to be what critics say it is: a barely disguised effort to win by making voting harder for many Americans. Good process builds consensus. Manipulation brings only suspicion and distrust.

In an age of politics by media, building consensus, which asks for room to talk it out, is nearly impossible. Oddly, when it is done on a smaller scale, face to face, it’s just as possible as ever. But it takes what our digital platforms have made nearly impossible: unhurried, responsive conversations that understand that solutions are not always just about ramming through a 50.5 to 49.5 victory and mocking the opponents.

But that’s just a perspective from out here, where the implementation eventually lands. Of course, we could save the billable hours and lawsuits and just leave it with the states, where the Constitution put it for us.