Voting: A Right, Not A Privilege, For Now

Republicans want to change that with the SAVE Act

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Wednesday, House Republicans passed the SAVE Act. It’s currently pending in the Senate. The most important thing to understand about it is that it’s not about protecting our elections from fraud. It’s about making it legal for Republicans to suppress Democratic votes. It’s just that simple.

As of tonight, the measure has 49 Republican co-sponsors in the Senate, shy of the total it needs to move forward but close enough to require us to get to work.

“But you have to show ID everywhere; you need it to cash a check. What’s the big deal?” That’s the argument.

It sounds reasonable until you consider the consequences. I wrote about them in my book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual For Keeping A Democracy. I shared the story of George Smiley in Alabama, one of the foot soldiers who marched across the bridge in Selma as a kid, voted in every election once he was able to, and in the final years of his life, was denied the right to vote after Alabama passed its voter ID act. That happened because George Smiley was poor and well past the age where he had a driver’s license, let alone the ability to afford a passport. And while Alabama paid lip service to the availability of state IDs, they were difficult to come by, not made available to the people who needed them the most and requiring access to documents and transportation to government offices.

Mr. Smiley is the kind of person the SAVE Act prevents from exercising their right to vote. People who don’t have a birth certificate and find it complicated to get the documents they need to establish citizenship or just can’t afford them. You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops and pay over $100 to be able to vote—it’s a right, not a privilege. The SAVE Act is, pure and simple, a poll tax.

The SAVE Act is even worse than the ID Acts that were adopted in states like Alabama and Arizona after the Supreme Court gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. It goes beyond requiring identification to vote. It requires proof of citizenship in order to register to vote and a photo ID when you go to the polls. As we’ve discussed, this is a solution in search of a problem. The justification for the Act’s stringent measures is voter fraud, which is extremely rare and doesn’t impact the outcome of elections. Suppressing the votes of tens of thousands of Americans likely could. That’s the whole point.

We discussed the SAVE Act last April, when Americans stood up to Donald Trump and bombarded their Senators with their concerns, compelling them to reject the Act given widespread opposition. Now it’s being pushed again, and it’s time for us to prevent its passage again. This year, it’s being called the SAVE America Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act), but the bills are fundamentally the same; this year’s version is the same anti-voter measure as last year’s attempt.

If the SAVE Act becomes law, all Americans will have to provide a birth certificate, a passport, or one of a limited number of documents, such as certain (but not all) military ID cards, every time they register or reregister to vote. It seems innocuous enough, the idea that you have to prove you’re a citizen, but at least 21 million Americans don’t have that kind of proof readily available. Only 51 percent of Americans have passports, which cost adults applying for the first time a $165.00 fee, not to mention assembling the documents you need, getting a photograph of yourself, and making it to an appointment.

The bill would end registration by mail and online because it requires voters to show proof of citizenship to election officials “in person” when they register. That would also make it difficult, if not impossible, to conduct voter registration drives, say, at churches or schools. States that automatically register voters when they turn 18 would no longer be able to do so. And if you move or need to reregister for any reason, this applies to you, too. You’d have to bring your passport or original birth certificate in for inspection every time you do that.

If you’re a married woman who changed or hyphenated her name, you can expect problems if your name doesn’t match your birth certificate. Last year, when the Act was under consideration, Hillary Clinton pointed to the special burden the act would impose on women.

Barack Obama is not a fan of the Act, either.

The reality of our current situation is that Donald Trump doesn’t want voters to pick their representatives. He wants to be able to pick who can vote. Steve Bannon made that frighteningly clear recently.

The SAVE Act is a massive attack on voting rights from a party that doesn’t want every American to be able to vote. The Capitol switchboard phone number, where you can ask to be connected to your senators’ offices, is (202) 224-3121.

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We’re in this together,

Joyce