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Floor Speech

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Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today in strong support of the SAVE America Act.

The principle at the heart of this legislation could not be simpler. It is not confusing, and it could not be more important. American elections are for American citizens. The fact that we are even here debating this tells you everything you need to know about how far some in this great country have drifted from common sense.

I have been fighting for the integrity of our elections for a long time. As a senator in the Mississippi State Legislature, I voted multiple times on the record to establish voter ID requirements-- something Mississippi voters eventually approved as part of a citizen- led initiative.

Photo IDs have been required at the polls in Mississippi since 2014. And let me tell you something, the Civil Rights Division of the Obama Department of Justice reviewed Mississippi's voter ID law, deemed it lawful, and never took a single legal action against it--because it is lawful, it is fair, and it works.

Despite naysayers' argument that a photo ID requirement would place undue burdens on the elderly, the poor, and the minorities, it continues to work with voters able to show or acquire a legally recognized photo ID. Did voting rights in Mississippi collapse? No. Did democracy in my State end? No.

Mississippians vote, and our elections are decided by American citizens who have greater public confidence in the integrity of our electoral system. That is the issue before the U.S. Senate today.

For years now, we have heard Members of this body, pundits, and politicians lecture the American people about the very real threat posed by foreign interference in our elections, and they were right to be concerned. Foreign interference in American elections is a serious matter.

So let's talk about foreign interference. Foreign interference in our elections is more than misleading or false posts and news stories planted online or in the media by foreign adversaries. Foreign interference has another form. If you are a citizen of another country and you participate in an American election, you are interfering in that election on behalf of a foreign nation. It is as simple as that.

Right now, today, noncitizens are taking advantage of loopholes to register and vote in American elections without ever proving they are a legal citizen of this country--no documentation, no verification.

And it is happening all over this country: in Oregon, in Pennsylvania, Montana, Arkansas, Virginia, New Jersey, the District of Columbia--the list goes on. Illegal aliens can obtain a driver's license in 19 different States. And in many of those same States, that driver's license can be used to register to vote--no proof of citizenship required.

The American people are not naive. They see what is happening, and they have been asking us--demanding of us--that we do something about it, and they are right. It is happening, and it is past time to do something about it.

The SAVE America Act does something about it. It requires proof of citizenship to register and vote in Federal elections.

That is not radical. That is not voter suppression. That is a basic, commonsense safeguard that a big majority of Americans support because we all know that we all have to show a legal photo ID to do most anything in this country.

The bottom line is that every single vote cast by noncitizens dilutes the vote of a real law-abiding American citizen. That is not rhetoric; it is math.

We can debate a lot of things in this Chamber, but we should not be debating whether American elections should be decided by Americans. The answer is yes.

For a dozen years, Mississippi voters have produced photo IDs before they vote, and they do so with the knowledge that this simple act helps to ensure the integrity of their vote.

This is the same goal at the heart of the SAVE America Act. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. Let's defend the ballot box and restore confidence in our elections.

The right to vote in this great Nation belongs to the citizens of this great Nation.

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