Former Pa. Gov. Corbett co-authors column criticizing fellow Republicans’ SAVE Act

Former Republican Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has co-written a column opposing the GOP’s SAVE America Act that would implement stringent voter identification requirements.

Corbett wrote the column with former Republican U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin for Time magazine. It was shared by Yahoo! News this month after President Donald Trump refused to sign a housing bill until Congress passes the SAVE Act.

With the headline, “We’re Conservative Republicans. The SAVE Act is a Mistake,” the columnists said they share a commitment to having only eligible American citizens vote and that the public must have confidence that elections are secure.

While agreeing with the basic premise of the SAVE Act to keep noncitizens from voting, Corbett and Ribble write that federal and state laws already prohibit that from occurring.

The “real question” about the legislation, they write, is whether it solves a real problem or creates burdens for “millions of eligible citizens” and local election officials.

“This is where the SAVE America Act falls short,” they write.

Corbett’s involvement in the column is particularly significant because he signed a bill in 2012 requiring photo identification for Pennsylvania voters. That law was challenged in court and ruled unconstitutional.

Among the issues they cite include the act’s proof of citizenship and photo ID requirements would not include a driver’s license. That would mean voters would be forced to obtain a passport, passport card, birth certificate, naturalization papers and other documents.

“That sounds straightforward — until one considers how Americans actually live,” the former elected officials wrote.

Young voters might not have passports; married women who change their surnames would have to obtain documentation; rural voters could be required to travel to an election office; low-income voters could be burdened with taking off work to get documents; military members could face obstacles; and consistent voters might have to get paperwork “simply because they moved, changed names or updated their registration,” Ribble and Corbett wrote.

“These are not theoretical concerns,” they wrote. “They are ordinary facts of everyday American life.”

Corbett and Ribble explain that Wisconsin “has one of the more stringent voter ID systems in the country,” and that Pennsylvania “takes a different approach, but it, too, has safeguards.”

They describe Pennsylvania’s requirements that voters be citizens, state residents and 18 by Election Day, as well as automatic voter registration through PennDOT and reviews by county elections officials.

A second “key concern” is that states administer elections, not the federal government, and states can run elections in different ways, Corbett and Ribble wrote.

“That diversity is not a defect,” they argued. “It allows states to build systems suited to their laws, populations and traditions while still meeting national constitutional standards. It is crucial that Republicans stand up for states’ rights — including now.”

Even with a divided Legislature, Pennsylvania has managed to pass election reforms in consultation with county leaders.

“That is how election policy should be improved through state-level experience, local feedback and practical reforms shaped by the officials who actually administer elections,” Corbett and Ribble wrote.

“A rushed federal overhaul would impose one blunt solution on thousands of local jurisdictions,” they insisted. “It would also ask election officials — already strained by turnover, threats and public mistrust — to implement complicated new requirements. That is not a recipe for confidence. It is a recipe for confusion.”

The two former officials said they have heard the skepticism from voters about election security, and it should be taken seriously, “but taking voters seriously does not mean endorsing every bill labeled ‘election integrity.’

“Some proposals strengthen trust. Others create confusion, burden eligible voters and weaken the state-based systems that already protect our elections.”

Corbett and Ribble write that evidence does not show that noncitizens voting “is occurring at a scale that justifies burdening millions of eligible Americans and overriding state election systems with a sweeping federal mandate.”

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