On Sunday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger appeared on CBS’ “Face The Nation” with host Margaret Brennan.
During a segment on voting legislation, Raffensperger and Brennan sparred over voter ID requirements, as well as citizen voting.
“I think that we should have a constitutional amendment, a U.S. constitution amendment that only American citizens vote in our elections. I think we should have also photo ID,” Raffensperger said.
Brennan jumped in, saying that “only U.S. citizens do currently vote in elections,” to which Raffensperger replied: “But we don’t have a constitutional amendment.”
The Georgia Secretary of State continued, noting that “cities are trying to push non-citizen voting,” and that majorities of Americans support both citizenship requirements and voter ID.
Brennan claimed the latest voting laws being pushed by Democrats “promote a national standard for states that have an ID requirement for in-person voting. You could use a bank statement or utility bill.”
“It does not have photo ID, and photo ID is the most secure way of using — making sure that you can identify who the voter is, and I think that’s very important,” Raffensperger said. “And then they also want same-day registration, and that’s just, you know, very difficult for any election official to manage. And I think that undermines trust in elections.”
According to a June poll by Monmouth University, a strong majority of Americans believe that ID should be required to vote.
“In general, do you support or oppose requiring voters to show a photo I.D. in order to vote?” the poll asked. 80% of respondents supported voter ID, while just 18% opposed it.
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:
RAFFENSPERGER: I think that we should have a constitutional amendment, a U.S. constitution amendment that only American citizens vote in our elections. I think we should have also photo ID. We now have photo ID for all forms of voting in Georgia–
BRENNAN: Only U.S. citizens do currently vote in elections, but go on.
RAFFENSPERGER: But we don’t have a constitutional amendment. Now you see cities are trying to push non-citizen voting, and I believe that only American citizens should be voting in our elections, that’s supported by a wide variety — a wide majority of all Americans, just like photo ID is supported by all demographic groups and a majority of both political parties. And that’s what they’ve been using in Minnesota for over 11 years for their absentee balloting. So that’s another, you know, solid, common sense federal reform measure if they really want to get serious about election reform.
BRENNAN: I assume there you’re referring to the president and the vice president, who will be traveling to your state in the coming days. They are doing so to campaign for two laws: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
RAFFENSPERGER: Right, and–
BRENNAN: The Freedom to Vote Act actually does promote a national standard for states that have an ID requirement for in-person voting. You could use a bank statement or utility bill. I wonder, why do you think Republicans–
RAFFENSPERGER: It does not have — it does not have photo ID, and photo ID is the most secure way of using — making sure that you can identify who the voter is, and I think that’s very important. And then they also want same day registration, and that’s just, you know, very difficult for any election official to manage. And I think that undermines trust in elections. And right now, we need to restore trust wherever we can.