We are calling on Congress to reject the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, H.R. 22 and companion bill S.128.
This bill, on its surface, requires proof of citizenship for registering to vote. However, the implementation of the law would have dramatic effects on a large percentage of American voters… especially women.
While it is reasonable to prevent non-citizens from voting, existing law already does that. The issue with the SAVE Act is that the bill would require ALL voters to provide in person, documentary proof of citizenship – a passport or birth certificate (as well as photo ID) – anytime they register or update their registration. A Real ID would not be acceptable, nor would military IDs, without accompanying documentation like a birth certificate.
Birth certificate requirements, even if voters can find them, are especially problematic. People could be barred from voting because of birth certificate name mis-matches if they took their spouse’s name or changed their name for other reasons.
Nationwide, approximately 69 million women could not use their birth certificate to prove their identity or citizenship status under the SAVE Act. (A Pew survey found that the two groups of women most likely to take their spouse’s name were conservative Republican women and Republican/Republican-leaning women, while the two least-likely groups were liberal Democratic women and Democratic/Democratic-leaning women. In fact, Democratic and Democratic-leaning women are twice as likely as Republican and Republican-leaning women to have kept their maiden name, with only 7 percent of conservative Republican women reporting that they kept their last name.) So while the legislation would unfairly disenfranchise women as a whole, the requirement to present a birth certificate would disproportionately disenfranchise conservative and Republican women.
Both income and education level are major factors determining whether or not someone has a passport. Voters with higher incomes and more education are far more likely to have a passport. People with household incomes over $100K are three times as likely to have a current passport as those with incomes below $50,000. Residents of northeast and west coast states are more likely to have passports than others.
The SAVE Act would effectively end online voter registration since it requires documentary proof be presented in person. The most we would be able to do is talk about the importance of registering, educate voters about what documents they would need, then send people to their local election office to actually register in person. Millions would simply not register.
There are the many Americans, including lower-income individuals, younger first-time voters, and new citizen voters, who rely on third party registration drives to bring them into the system that has otherwise ignored them. The SAVE Act would effectively be the end of all third party voter registration drives with groups like League Of Women Voters. Since only a government official can review and accept the proof of citizenship, third party groups would no longer be able to collect voter registration forms.
The in-person requirement for presenting the documents will be a barrier to those with limited access to transportation. Rural voters would be especially challenged. Frequent movers will also be faced with the added burden of providing these documents in person every time they move.
Many people simply won’t bother and become unregistered, non-voters.
Even if the documents could be submitted online, over 21 million otherwise eligible American voters don’t have these proof of citizenship documents readily available. In the end, tens of millions of eligible American citizens who don’t have access to the required documents or can’t get to a government office in person would be unable to vote – all to prevent an exceedingly small number of non-citizens, a few dozen perhaps, from voting.
The SAVE Act would also overwhelm election officials, leading to long lines for voters and dramatically increased costs for state and local governments. As of 2022, only 5.9% of voters registered to vote in person at election offices. While 55% of registrations are collected through motor vehicle departments, the vast majority of states now do license renewals online. All registrations currently collected online, whether through a motor vehicle department or state election’s office, or by mail, would now have to be done in person.
Then there is the highly discriminatory impact of the law on voters, disenfranchising tens of millions of eligible citizens.
While the SAVE Act does not directly aim to deny millions of American women the right to vote, it certainly does not treat their right vote as sacred and remains ignorant to the fact that requirements of the legislation threaten to infringe on the voting rights of millions of Republican, Democratic, and independent women across the country.
Demand your member of Congress to vote NO on the SAVE Act.
Then spread the word and ask those in your network to do the same.
Find your member of congress and their contact information here:
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member