Richard Durbin

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Do you know where your original birth certificate is? If you’re lucky, you might track it down after rummaging through that box in your closet. But most Americans would be hard-pressed to find it.

Well, you had better get on it. Because if President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have their way, you may need that document to register to vote in the midterm elections later this year.

Why? Because their so-called SAVE America Act would upend how states register voters and maintain voting data — making it harder for Americans to participate in our democracy.

I’ve been in politics for some time. I’ve learned a thing or two. So, I know there’s always a “good” and a “real” reason for getting something done.

Trump says the SAVE America Act is needed to address voter fraud — instances of noncitizens voting. That is his claimed “good” reason in defense of this bill. His “real” reason? To cling to power by rigging the results of the midterms.

Here’s the truth: Federal criminal law already prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and cases of noncitizens voting are extremely rare. To that, you might say: Durbin, you’re a Democrat. You’re biased.

Then don’t take it from me.

The Bipartisan Policy Center analyzed the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database. Out of millions of votes cast, how many cases of noncitizens illegally voting did the center find in that database between 1999 to 2023?

Was the number 77,000? No. Or 7,700? Try again. Or even 770? Nope.

I’ll tell you: It was just 77 cases in a 24-year period, out of the millions and millions of votes cast.

It’s clear, then, that the “crisis” of voter fraud that has long been pushed by this president is a manufactured one. But if Trump’s bill becomes law, the implications would be very, very real.

A constituent of mine from Hoffman Estates, Ill., is one of the many Americans without a passport who have taken the last name of their spouse. Under the SAVE America Act, my constituent told me she would have to drive a good distance to gather her marriage license and verify her name change. She said that the cost of gas, thanks to the war in Iran, the time she would spend traveling, and bureaucratic hurdles would pose considerable challenges to her being able to cast a ballot.

It’s not just women. For the elderly voters with mobility issues would be required to register in-person, the working-class parent who has to shell out $165 for a passport, or the rural voter who must drive multiple towns over to provide proof of citizenship — this bill impacts them.

Republicans aligned with Trump on this say they would address these challenges by allowing voters to sign a statement, under penalty of perjury, attesting to their citizenship. But this safeguard falls short — especially given new civil and criminal penalties for election officials that are tucked into this bill.

Thankfully, Senate Democrats have defeated this legislation time and time again. We will continue to do so if Republicans keep trying to pass this voter suppression bill.

But the SAVE America Act is part of the president’s larger scheme to sow doubt in our elections.

I was in the Senate chamber on Jan. 6, 2021. Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over the counting of the electoral votes for the 2020 election. It was roughly 10 minutes after 2 in the afternoon when Secret Service agents escorted Pence away. Not long after, members of Congress were instructed to leave as well.

A mob of insurrectionists, inspired by the president and his “Big Lie,” were attacking the U.S. Capitol. Their goal? To stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Despite this, Congress certified Joe Biden’s win. But the attacks on free and fair elections have continued.

Since Trump returned to the White House, his administration made the extraordinary move to raid an election office in Fulton County, Ga., seizing ballots due to baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

His weaponized Justice Department gutted the Civil Rights Division — which enforces laws that protect the right to vote — and eliminated the Election Threats Task Force, which protected poll workers, candidates, judges and others involved in election administration.

And, in April, the president’s hand-picked conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court dealt a fatal blow to the Voting Rights Act, allowing Republican-led states to redraw their congressional maps to gain a partisan edge and dilute the votes of Black Americans.

My friend, the late Congressman John Lewis, once said the right to vote is “precious, almost sacred.” Under Trump, that precious, sacred right is under an unprecedented attack.

That’s why Congress must pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act. But we must also consider additional tools to protect the right to vote. That’s why I recently reintroduced a joint resolution that would enshrine an explicit, individual right to vote in the U.S. Constitution.

As America celebrates her 250th birthday, we should recommit to the values this nation was founded on and advance measures to push back against voter suppression efforts by this president before it’s too late.

Dick Durbin is a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois. He wrote this column for the Chicago Tribune.