Saving America?
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act is a reprehensible bill that would make it harder for Americans to vote, requiring proof of citizenship to register. Many people do not have access to documentation to prove citizenship, and others would have to bring extra paperwork due to legal name changes. This would disproportionally affect married women, adoptees and transgender adults. If the government can automatically register men for the draft, why must it impose poll taxes?
Defendants of the act claim immigrants commit voter fraud. However, this is misleading. Research shows voter fraud is extremely rare in and of itself. Under the SAVE America Act, women and minorities would be facing systematic barriers to register to vote despite not being undocumented. Most women in opposite-sex marriages take or hyphenate their spouse’s last name, causing a mismatch between documents. Transgender adults also face high rates of identification discrepancies across systems, so they would likewise be disenfranchised by this preposterous bill.
Without widespread education about such an intense restriction, many people already underrepresented in policy decisions will be turned away at the polls. Providing certain IDs, like passports, can be expensive, especially for people who have changed their name and receive new documentation. Subsequently, many eligible voters do not own passports. If you had to prove your citizenship right now, could you?