Congressman and Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds (R-FL) slammed Democrats for their opposition to the SAVE America Act during an appearance on The Dan Bongino Show this week.
The SAVE Act, if fully passed, would require proof of citizenship for anyone who registers to vote in federal elections. A similar measure, H.R.22, or the Safeguarding America Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, passed in the House last April but has stalled in the Senate.
The House is expected to take up the SAVE America Act this week. The latest bill also includes a photo ID requirement for federal elections.
"Democrats in their jurisdiction, they have very loose rules that allow for open-ended cheating and fraud to take place. Let's be very clear," Donalds said to Bongino.
Rep. Donalds contradicted the opposition to Florida's handling of ballots during elections, which are among the most secure in the country.
"Our election law in Florida is based around treating every ballot as if it was evidence in a trial. That's how we treat our ballots here. Everything is very secure," Donalds said.
Nearly 11 million people voted in Florida during the 2024 presidential election. Notably, Florida was also called on election day for President Donald Trump, all while being the third largest state by population in the country.
Arizona, on the other hand, wasn't called until days later.
"You have to request your absentee ballots. It used to be you could request it for three election cycles, the next three cycles. Now you have to request it for every election cycle. They have to be signed. Your signature has to match. We go through a very detailed protocol here in Florida," the Florida lawmaker said.
Rep. Donalds also slammed blue states for their election protocol.
"Compare that to places like California, Oregon, which does complete universal mail-outs. They just send everybody that's on the roll an absentee ballot. And you can just imagine how fraudulent that could become because they never clean these roles, and then you have the whole ballot tabulating process," Donads said.
While he urged for federal action on the SAVE Act, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has essentially labeled it as racist, referring to it as "Jim Crow 2.0."
"There has to be voter ID. When you cast a ballot in America, you have to prove that you are who you say you are, just like when you get on a plane, just like when you check into a hotel, just like when you get a bank account," Donalds said. "The second piece is verification that you're an American citizen when you register to vote, like this is very common sense stuff."
You can watch Donalds full interview with Bongino here.
