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If a politician promised that if elected, he’d make sure people have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to vote from now on — and even pay for the right to cast a ballot — we’d dare say that politician would be roundly defeated and sent into political exile.

But that’s essentially what the Republican majorities in Congress are proposing through the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.

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With the SAVE Act likely to pass the House of Representatives but potentially doomed to a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, President Donald J. Trump decided not to wait: On Tuesday he issued an executive order to do much the same – usurping the power of states and Congress to regulate elections.

The SAVE Act would require that people produce proof of citizenship to register to vote or change their registration if, for instance, they move to a new address or make a change in party enrollment, which millions of people routinely do. It would also require states to comb their voter rolls for noncitizen registrations.

Mr. Trump’s executive order assigns his “Department of........

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