Good morning. President Trump told reporters that he didn’t need help from allies in Iran and that he was “not afraid of anything” when asked about a long war with U.S. troops on the ground. And the lieutenant governor of Illinois, Juliana Stratton, won the Democratic primary race for Senate there. We’ll get to that, and more, below.
Count on itVoter fraud almost never happens in the United States. Still, in order to prevent it, President Trump is pushing Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, an election law that would, among many provisions, require people to show photo identification to vote. It’s a solution in search of a problem — a solution that narrowly passed in the House last week and is now under debate in the Senate. The law is unlikely to pass there, given deeply felt opposition from Democrats who can block it with a filibuster. Republicans lack the 60 votes they need to overcome one. Trump insists they pass the law anyway, even if they have to kill the filibuster to do so. (Some Republicans don’t want to do that, since eventually they may need the device to block the other side.) He said he would not sign any other legislation until the bill made it to his desk. It’s his “No. 1 priority,” he said, and would “guarantee” the midterm elections for the Republicans. “If you don’t get it — big trouble,” Trump told them last week. Most Americans support the idea of voter identification, polls say. We show driver’s licenses and passports all the time — to go on planes, to register at hotels, to buy indica at a dispensary. Show ID at a polling place? Sure. But voter identification is not really what the SAVE America Act is all about, according to Democrats and election experts who oppose it. (Its full name is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.) They say it’s about disenfranchisement. They say that it could hand the Trump administration data it could distort to claim widespread voter fraud when Republicans lose races. Here are the ways the law would change voting — and the complications that could emerge from its passage. It would require voters to prove their citizenship in person when registering to vote. They would need to do so every time their registration changes — when they move, say, or change their name or party affiliation. What’s so bad about that? Maybe you have an enhanced driver’s license that proves your citizenship. Maybe you have a passport, or naturalization papers. Let me ask you: Do you know where your birth certificate is? My colleague Nick Corasaniti, who covers voting and elections, pointed me toward a study that found that nearly 10 percent of American citizens of voting age don’t have proof of citizenship at hand — if they have the papers at all. The bill would curtail voting by mail. Would you photocopy your driver’s license or passport and send it in the mail, just to request a ballot? I might. But first I’d need to find a working photocopier. And then I’d have to use it again when sending my ballot in. Anything that introduces friction to the voting process, election experts say, leads to less voting. The bill would require states to send voter information to the Department of Homeland Security. Some state election officials don’t like that idea at all: What are federal officials doing with that information? How safe is it? How open to manipulation? And the legislation would require compliance within days, without providing funding to support it. Local election offices aren’t set up to collect copies of photo identification for mail-in ballots. They would need to spin up whole new processes to verify citizenship status, instantly. (Realistically, those efforts take staffing and time.) And should states fail to make these changes quickly enough, they wouldn’t be allowed to count mailed ballots. As the debate in the Senate continues, here’s more to know about the legislation.
The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is melting quickly. If it breaks apart entirely, it could push up global sea levels by two feet — flooding neighborhoods that are home to tens of millions of people. The Times analyzed how the rising waters would affect low-lying cities in the U.S. and around the world. See maps of the impact.
Airstrikes
More on the War
Midterm Elections
More on Politics
Airports
Around the World
Devoted readers of The Morning may have noticed that Melissa Kirsch had some news in her Saturday column: She has a new weekly newsletter, The Good List, and it begins today. Every Wednesday she’ll recommend a few havens from the storm of world events — things that are delightful, peaceful, restorative, just good. One offering from today: Parseword, a new game from the inventor of Wordle. It’s billed as “tricky,” and it is, but it’s satisfying too. As with Wordle, you only get one shot per day, mercifully. Sign up here to receive The Good List in your inbox later today.
Trump has no clear strategy or plan for the war in Iran, an example of his “chaotic, ego-driven approach to the presidency,” the editorial board writes. Here are columns by Jamelle Bouie on what he hates in the SAVE America Act and Bret Stephens on Israel’s role in the war on Iran. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more.
Internet gold: A “leprechaun spotting” in Mobile, Ala., became an early piece of digital history. Twenty years later, we spoke with the people who lived it. A Hollywood find: She needed a new rug for her apartment. The dumpster outside the Oscars had a nice one — and it was red. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the best way to clean your ears. A spymaster: Len Deighton, the British author who brought realism to the espionage genre in best-selling 1960s Cold War thrillers like “The Ipcress File,” died this week at 97. Of his success, he said, “All you need is a profound inferiority complex, no training as a writer and growing up a victim of the English class system.”
3,600— That is how many miles a stowaway red fox traveled aboard a 760-foot ship carrying vehicles between England and New Jersey. |
