{"id":46679,"date":"2026-02-13T13:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46679"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:11:15","slug":"republicans-approve-dystopian-voter-suppression-bill-that-would-force-states-to-give-info-to-dhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/republicans-approve-dystopian-voter-suppression-bill-that-would-force-states-to-give-info-to-dhs\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Approve \u2018Dystopian\u2019 Voter Suppression Bill That Would Force States to Give Info to DHS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Speaker<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks during a news conference on February 11, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe campaign to rig our elections is well underway,\u201d warned one expert.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb 12, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing President Donald Trump\u2019s bidding, the Republican-controlled US House<\/a> on Wednesday approved legislation that would potentially prevent millions of Americans from participating in federal elections by instituting draconian voter ID requirements, mandating documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, and requiring states to share voter information with the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House-backed legislation, an updated version of the so-called SAVE Act that the House approved in 2024, passed with the support of every Republican who took part in the vote and one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas\u2014notably the recipient of a pardon from the president<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"GENIUS<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Most Dangerous Attack on Voting Rights Ever\u2019? New GOP Election Bill Sparks Dire Warnings<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"US<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Our Democracy Depends on Rejecting This Charade\u2019: GOP Pushes Bills to Prevent Millions From Voting<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Election experts and watchdog groups said the bill represents a massive assault on the right to vote, with many of its provisions directly in line<\/a> with what Trump has demanded ahead of the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCongressional Republicans<\/a> are attempting to commandeer the midterm election cycle and increase voting margins in President Trump\u2019s favor by putting a finger on the scale of our elections and pushing nonsensical, anti-democratic laws to stop voters from casting a ballot,\u201d said Public Citizen<\/a> co-president Lisa Gilbert. \u201cThis overreaching, un-American bill tacks on unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles to vote, all of which would harm voters across the political spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill is likely dead on arrival in the narrowly divided Senate, with every Democrat and at least one Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, expected to oppose it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But its passage through the House with unanimous support from the Republican caucus\u2014whose members claim to be driven by a desire to prevent noncitizens from voting, which is already unlawful, and combat voter fraud, which is virtually nonexistent\u2014alarmed rights advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis obvious attack on our voting rights<\/a> is based on completely unfounded claims,\u201d said Alison Gill, director of nominations and democracy<\/a> at the National Women\u2019s Law Center. \u201cThe lawmakers supporting this measure clearly aim to suppress the votes of women, people of color, and LGBTQ<\/a>+ people in order to rig elections and remain in power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, which means that the SAVE Act 2.0 creates a convoluted and dystopian solution to a problem that does not actually exist,\u201d Gill added. \u201cAmericans strongly opposed legislation when Congress considered this issue last year, and yet the congressional Republicans are trying to double down on this deceptive policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe forces that are driving the Trump administration\u2019s anti-voter agenda are also pressuring Congress to pass legislation that would silence millions of Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts estimate that more than 21 million Americans lack ready access to the documents the Republican legislation would require people to furnish in order to register to vote, such as a passport and a birth certificate. The Brennan Center for Justice notes<\/a> that the measure \u201cwould disenfranchise Americans of all ages and races, but younger voters and voters of color would suffer disproportionately. Likewise, millions of women whose married names aren\u2019t on their birth certificates or passports would face extra steps just to make their voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to strict documentary requirements for registration and voting, the bill would force states to conduct frequent purges of their voter rolls and share information with the Department of Homeland Security in a purported effort to verify voters\u2019 citizenship\u2014changes that could disenfranchise many eligible voters. The legislation would also establish criminal penalties for election workers<\/a> who register voters without the required documentary proof of citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce Spiva, senior vice president at Campaign Legal Center, noted that the GOP\u2019s renewed voter suppression push \u201ccomes as the FBI<\/a> is seizing ballots from the 2020 election, President Trump is calling for our elections to be \u2018nationalized,\u2019 and the US Department of Justice<\/a> is suing more than 20 states to get access to voters\u2019 private data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not a coincidence,\u201d said Spiva. \u201cThe forces that are driving the Trump administration\u2019s anti-voter agenda are also pressuring Congress to pass legislation that would silence millions of Americans by making it harder to participate in our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an op-ed for the New York Times<\/a><\/em> on Thursday, the Brennan Center\u2019s Sean Morales-Doyle warned that \u201cthe campaign to rig our elections is well underway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will be incumbent on all of us\u2014election officials, advocates, state law enforcement, and voters\u2014to see the administration\u2019s efforts for what they are and to fight back,\u201d wrote Morales-Doyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks during a news conference on February 11, 2026. \u00a0(Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images) \u201cThe campaign to rig our elections is well underway,\u201d warned one expert. Jake Johnson Feb 12, 2026 (CommonDreams.org) Doing President Donald Trump\u2019s bidding, the Republican-controlled US House on Wednesday approved legislation… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46679"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46680,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46679\/revisions\/46680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}