Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville warned Democrats on Thursday that the American public believes they don’t care about voter fraud, and the best thing they can do is stop fighting against voter ID requirements and move on to other issues.
His comments come as Republicans in Congress have been pushing to pass the SAVE Act, which would create a new federal proof of citizenship mandate in the voter registration process and impose requirements for states to keep their rolls clear of ineligible voters, in addition to requiring photo ID to vote in any federal elections.
Carville argued that while he believes there is a negligible amount of voter fraud, refusing to put up photo ID safeguards against it is a terrible hill for Democrats to die on.
“First of all, in Louisiana, you got to show your driver’s license to vote,” Carville said on “Politics War Room.” “I’ll have to ask Michael Waldman or Fred Wertheimer, does this really have that much effect? And voter fraud in the United States is an infinitesimal problem. To the extent — I guess you could say it exists, anything could exist. It exists on such a minuscule scale, and it’s been proven time and time and time again.”
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However, he still said the issue cannot be ignored.
“But I don’t know if we’re not better off saying, ‘Okay, we’ll take that alternative idea. Bring your gas bill or your light bill or something,’ because, for whatever reason, this s— polls at 75%,” he said. “It barely exists, and it just doesn’t make any sense. Having said that, we are not going to win the war against some kind of ID. It doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t fix anything, but maybe you just go along with it and move to the next thing.”
His co-host Al Hunt disagreed, however, claiming, “We have voter ID in most states. Most states have voter ID,” and that with the Republicans’ SAVE Act, they are requiring proof of citizenship, causing hurdles in that many people don’t have passports, many people have difficulty tracking down their birth certificate. And many women will run into difficulties if they changed their surnames when they got married.”
“Again, if we have it, just say, ‘Okay, pass the law,’” Carville said of requiring voter ID. “I never had a problem with it. I’m just saying, of all the things — if every poll shows 75% or better say we should have some kind of ID to vote, some say — I don’t know what it is — but s—, just quit fighting, go along with it, and move to the next thing.”
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“Wait a minute,” Hunt said. “Let me ask you, what are you going along with? With what?”
“Whatever the law in Louisiana is. Make it the national law,” Carville suggested. Hunt replied that he would probably have no issue with that, but Carville made it clear that he is not in favor of the SAVE Act.
“I’m not talking about the SAVE Act. I’m not talking about the SAVE Act at all. I’m saying just adapt that. But somehow or another, it comes across that we don’t want to check the eligibility of a voter,” Carville warned.
He argued that voter fraud doesn’t make much sense because it’s risking a hefty punishment for individual votes but suggested that the sooner this is resolved, the better.
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“It’s all a stupid argument. But maybe we could just come up with a simple thing and just say, ‘Okay, we’re for this. Bye. Thank you.’ Get the hell out of this argument,” he said.
“Yeah. Well, you know, I basically agree with that,” Hunt replied. “But we really have to deal with the issue better, Democrats really have to deal with the issue better.”
