特朗普一直在敦促改变投票方式 国会中的共和党多数派将努力实现这一目标
【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 31 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）共和党人计划迅速采取行动，改革国家的投票程序，他们认为，在控制白宫和参众两院的情况下，有机会推动长期寻求的改革，包括选民身份证和公民身份证明要求。美联社记者克里斯蒂娜·A·卡西迪对此作了下述报道。
他们说，这些措施是恢复公众对选举信心所必需的，民主党指出，信任的削弱是由当选总统唐纳德·特朗普及其盟友关于 2020 年大选存在广泛欺诈行为的虚假指控加剧的。在新的一年里，共和党将面临压力，需要满足特朗普改变美国选举方式的愿望，尽管他在 11 月获胜，但他仍在继续推动这一目标。
威斯康星州共和党众议员、众议院管理委员会主席布莱恩·斯泰尔表示，共和党预计将推动的主要立法将是《美国选举信心法案》和《保障美国选民资格法案》的版本，该委员会负责处理与选举相关的立法。这两项提案分别被称为 ACE 法案和 SAVE 法案。
“在共和党政府团结一致迎接新年之际，我们有真正的机会将这些立法不仅从委员会中移出，而且在众议院通过并成为法律，”斯泰尔在接受采访时表示。“我们需要提高美国人对选举的信心。”
共和党可能会面临民主党的反对，而且由于他们在众议院和参议院都占微弱多数，几乎没有回旋余地。斯蒂尔表示，他预计最初的提案将会“进行一些改革和调整”，并希望民主党人与共和党人合作完善并最终支持这些提案。
委员会资深民主党人、纽约州众议员乔·莫雷尔表示，两党有机会就一些问题达成一致，但表示之前的两项共和党法案走得太远了。
“在这一点上，我们和共和党人的观点截然不同，”莫雷尔说。“在过去两年及以后的大部分时间里，他们一直在真正限制人们的投票权——无论是在州一级还是联邦一级。《拯救法案》和《ACE法案》都这样做——让人们更难投票。”
莫雷尔表示，他希望看到两党都支持专门为选举办公室提供的联邦资金。他认为，在限制外国资金进入美国选举以及在采取某些保护选民的措施的情况下可能实施选民身份证要求方面，两党还有其他合作机会。
民主党人表示，一些州的法律对可用于投票的身份证件类型限制过于严格，这给大学生或没有永久地址的人增加了投票难度。
莫雷尔表示，他对共和党在今年的竞选活动中声称非公民投票现象普遍感到失望，这种情况极为罕见，并指出，特朗普获胜后，这些说法几乎烟消云散。非公民投票已经是非法的，可能会导致重罪指控和驱逐出境。
“自选举日以来，你没有听到任何关于此事的消息，”莫雷尔说。“这是一个选举日奇迹，他们花了过多的时间描述为猖獗的问题、流行病问题，突然间根本不存在了。”
在 11 月大选之前，众议院共和党人推动了《拯救法案》，该法案于 7 月在众议院获得通过，但在民主党控制的参议院受阻。该法案要求登记投票时提供公民身份证明，并包括对未能确认资格的选举官员的潜在处罚。
共和党人表示，目前的程序依赖于他们所谓的荣誉制度，该制度存在漏洞，允许非公民在过去的选举中登记和投票。虽然非公民投票的情况确实存在，但对州案件的研究和审查表明，这种情况很少见，而且通常是一种错误，而不是为了影响选举而故意为之。
根据现行制度，那些寻求登记的人需要提供州驾照号码或社会安全号码的后四位数字。一些州要求提供完整的社会安全号码。
共和党人表示，选民登记程序不够严格，因为在许多州，即使人们不提供这些信息，也可以被添加到选民名单中，而且一些非公民可以获得社会安全号码和驾照。他们认为，目前要求填写选民登记表的任何人都必须宣誓自己是美国公民，这是不够的。
他们希望迫使各州拒绝任何未提供公民身份证明的选民登记申请。共和党人说，这可能包括符合真实身份证要求的驾照、护照或出生证明。
在佐治亚州这个常年总统竞选的战场州，选举官员表示，他们在核实近 730 万登记选民的公民身份时没有遇到任何问题。他们在 2022 年进行了一次审计，确定了 1,634 名曾试图登记但无法通过联邦数据库验证为美国公民的人。
今年的第二次审计使用当地法院记录来识别那些表示自己不是美国公民而不能担任陪审员的人。在确定的 20 人中，有 6 人因非法投票而受到调查，但其中一起案件已结案，因为该人已经死亡。
“我们通过进行这些审计，让选民相信，佐治亚州没有非公民投票，”佐治亚州务卿布拉德·拉芬斯珀格 (Brad Raffensperger) 说。“当社会高度两极分化时，你必须考虑建立信任。信任是黄金标准。”
拉芬斯珀格是一名共和党人，他支持选民身份证和公民身份证明要求，他认为该州早期采用 REAL ID 和使用自动选民登记确保选民名单准确无误。他希望更多共和党人会考虑后者，因为他认为，这使得佐治亚州选举官员能够使用机动车管理局的程序来核实公民身份，并追踪州内和州外流动的人员。
“你必须把事情做好，因为你谈论的是人们无价的投票权，”拉芬斯珀格说。
如果国会通过任何改革，那么全国各地的选举官员都将负责实施。
拉芬斯珀格和密歇根州民主党州务卿乔斯林·本森表示，将全国的投票时间改为一天是一个错误，特朗普曾表示他希望看到这种情况发生，因为这将取消提前投票，并限制邮寄选票的使用。这两种投票方式在选民中都非常受欢迎。在佐治亚州，11 月有 71% 的选民在选举日之前亲自投票。
两人都表示，他们希望立法者能够借鉴各自州的做法，并借鉴这些成功做法。
本森说：“我们已经在各州一次又一次地证明，我们的选举是安全、准确的。”
题图：当选总统唐纳德·特朗普及其盟友希望迅速采取行动，改革国家的投票程序，包括努力取消提前投票和限制邮寄选票。ALI KHALIGH/中东图片/法新社通过盖蒂图片社
附原英文报道：
Trump has pressed for voting changes. GOP majorities in Congress will try to make that happen.
By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY The Associated Press,Updated December 30, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump and his allies look to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation’s voting procedures, including an effort to eliminate early voting and limit access to mail ballots.ALI KHALIGH/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
ATLANTA — Republicans plan to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation’s voting procedures, seeing an opportunity with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to push through long-sought changes that include voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements.
They say the measures are needed to restore public confidence in elections, an erosion of trust that Democrats note has been fueled by false claims from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In the new year, Republicans will be under pressure to address Trump’s desires to change how elections are run in the United States, something he continues to promote despite his win in November.
The main legislation that Republicans expect to push will be versions of the American Confidence in Elections Act and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, said GOP Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, chair of the Committee on House Administration, which handles election-related legislation. The proposals are known as the ACE and SAVE acts, respectively.
“As we look to the new year with unified Republican government, we have a real opportunity to move these pieces of legislation not only out of committee, but across the House floor and into law,” Steil said in an interview. “We need to improve Americans’ confidence in elections.”
Republicans are likely to face opposition from Democrats and have little wiggle room with their narrow majorities in both the House and Senate. Steil said he expects there will be “some reforms and tweaks” to the original proposals and hopes Democrats will work with Republicans to refine and ultimately support them.
New York Representative Joe Morelle, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said there was an opportunity for bipartisan agreement on some issues but said the two previous GOP bills go too far.
“Our view and the Republicans’ view is very different on this point,” Morelle said. “They have spent most of the time in the last two years and beyond really restricting the rights of people to get to ballots – and that’s at the state level and the federal level. And the SAVE Act and the ACE Act both do that – make it harder for people to vote.”
Morelle said he wants to see both parties support dedicated federal funding for election offices. He sees other bipartisan opportunities around limiting foreign money in US elections and possibly imposing a voter ID requirement if certain safeguards are in place to protect voters.
Democrats say some state laws are too restrictive in limiting the types of IDs that are acceptable for voting, making it harder for college students or those who lack a permanent address.
Morelle said he was disappointed by the GOP’s claims in this year’s campaigns about widespread voting by noncitizens, which is extremely rare, and noted how those claims all but evaporated once Trump won. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal and and can result in felony charges and deportation.
“You haven’t heard a word about this since Election Day,” Morelle said. “It’s an Election Day miracle that suddenly the thing that they had spent an inordinate amount of time describing as a rampant problem, epidemic problem, didn’t exist at all.”
Before the November election, House Republicans pushed the SAVE Act, which passed the House in July but stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. It requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and includes potential penalties for election officials who fail to confirm eligibility.
Republicans say the current process relies on an what they call an honor system with loopholes that have allowed noncitizens to register and vote in past elections. While voting by noncitizens has occurred, research and reviews of state cases have shown it to be rare and typically a mistake rather than an intentional effort to sway an election.
Under the current system, those seeking to register are asked to provide either a state driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. A few states require a full Social Security number.
Republicans say the voter registration process is not tight enough because in many states people can be added to voter rolls even if they do not provide this information and that some noncitizens can receive Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. They believe the current requirement that anyone completing a voter registration form sign under oath that they are a US citizen is not enough.
They want to force states to reject any voter registration application for which proof of citizenship is not provided. Republicans say that could include a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, a passport, or a birth certificate.
In Georgia, a perennial presidential battleground state, election officials said they have not encountered any hiccups verifying the citizenship status of its nearly 7.3 million registered voters. They conducted an audit in 2022 that identified 1,634 people who had attempted to register but were not able to be verified as US citizens by a federal database.
A second audit this year used local court records to identify people who said they could not serve as a juror because they were not a US citizen. Of the 20 people identified, six were investigated for illegal voting, though one of those cases was closed because the person had since died.
“What we’ve done by doing those audits is give voters confidence that we do not have noncitizens voting here in Georgia,” said Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state. “And when society is highly polarized, you have to look at building trust. Trust is the gold standard.”
Raffensperger, a Republican who supports both voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements, credits the state’s early adoption of REAL ID and use of automatic voter registration for ensuring voter lists are accurate. The latter is something he hopes more Republicans will consider, as he argued it has allowed Georgia election officials to use the motor vehicle agency’s process to verify citizenship and track people moving in and around the state.
“You have to get it right because you’re talking about people’s priceless franchise to vote,” Raffensperger said.
If Congress does pass any changes, it would fall to election officials across the country to implement them.
Raffensperger and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said it would be a mistake to move the country to a single day of voting, something Trump has said he would like to see happen, because it would eliminate early voting and limit access to mail ballots. Both methods are extremely popular among voters. In Georgia, 71 percent of voters in November cast their ballots in person before Election Day.
Both said they hoped lawmakers would look to what is working in their states and build off those successes.
“We’ve proven time and time again in our states that our elections are secure and are accurate,” Benson said.
