Booker rejects Trump-backed SAVE Act despite New Jersey non-citizen voter error
Senator Cory Booker said the discovery of about 6,600 non-citizens mistakenly eligible to vote in New Jersey does not justify the SAVE America Act, arguing it would not have prevented such clerical mistakes.
A software malfunction in New Jersey's motor-vehicle database allowed about 6,600 non-citizens to appear eligible for the 2024 presidential election, prompting Governor Mikie Sherrill to purge the names and launch an investigation. Senator Cory Booker argued that this mistake does not support President Donald Trump's push for the SAVE America Act, noting that the bill would not have averted similar errors in Texas or Oregon.
He described the legislation as a massive voter-suppression effort that could prevent millions of lawful voters from casting ballots. Although Booker opposes the federal bill, he maintains that citizenship verification should be required, but managed by individual states even in federal contests. He warned that officials responsible for the New Jersey error must be held accountable.
Republicans favoring the SAVE Act claim it would expose and fix such problems, a point Booker dismissed as a political weaponization. The episode underscores the absence of a nationwide mechanism to track and correct voter-roll inaccuracies.
Why it matters
The dispute reveals tensions over federal voting-ID legislation and how election errors are addressed across states.
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