2. PRoVE Act; A Democratic Alternative to the SAVE ACt
Background: Tens of millions of Americans are concerned that illegal immigrants are voting in our elections. The SAVE Act is bad legislation, however we do need to ensure the integrity of our elections, and we do need to address the concerns of Americans who believe illegal immigrants are voting in our election, in violation of our Constitution. The PRoVE Act mandates auditing of voter registrations to ensure that illegal immigrants aren’t being registered to vote. By requiring states to confirm that illegal immigrants are not registering and voting, our country can address the concerns of many millions of Americans. This is the nature of democracy – we address the concerns of all of our citizens, even the ones with whom we disagree.
The PRoVE Act: After each federal election cycle, within six months of the election, each state is required to audit one tenth of one percent of all registered voters (audit group 1), and 2% of all new registrants in the previous two year cycle (audit group 2) to confirm the registrants are US citizens.
For a randomly selected 10% of each audit group, the auditor will contact the person and request a copy of their birth certificate. If the person is unable to provide a copy of their birth certificate, they must give approval for the auditor to receive a copy of their birth certificate from their state of birth and agree to a face to face interview to confirm their identify. If a person refuses to provide the birth certificate or comply with the alternative requirements, the auditor must notify law enforcement, which shall initiate an investigation of possible election fraud. For the remainder of the people in each audit pool, the audit process will confirm that each name in the audited pool is registered in the Social Security database and further check public records that the person is not deceased. The audit will further confirm that the name and address match a name and address in the e-verify database.
The audit process will also examine publicly available information to confirm that the person lived in the United States at a verifiable address at least ten years before the date of the audit. Publicly available information may include proof of tax filings, proof of employment, proof of participation in a public assistance program, property ownership or occupancy records or proof of service in the armed forces.
If the audit process is unable to verify 100% of the above, then the auditor is required to contact the person and request a copy of their birth certificate. If the person is unable to provide a copy of their birth certificate, they must give approval for the auditor to receive a copy of their birth certificate from their state of birth and agree to a face to face interview to confirm their identify. If a person refuses to provide the birth certificate or comply with the alternative requirements, the auditor must notify law enforcement, which shall initiate an investigation of possible election fraud.
If a single instance of an illegal immigrant having successfully registered to vote is identified in either audit pool, the state shall be required to randomly select two additional audit pools of each category, and complete an audit of each pool new pool. The state shall be required to continue auditing until it is able to complete an audit of two groups without identifying a single illegal immigrant registered to vote.