Op-ed: Protect voting by rejecting the SAVE Act

By Sue Racanelli
President
League of Women Voters of Vermont

On April 10, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, H.R.22, passed the U.S. House and is on its way to the Senate. The League of Women Voters of Vermont opposes the SAVE Act because it would require all Vermont citizens registering to vote or updating their registration information to present documentary proof of citizenship in person.

The SAVE Act is a disastrous bill that would disenfranchise millions of American citizens. The legislation purports to protect elections from non-citizens’ voting. Ironically, there is no evidence of widespread non-citizen voting. According to a Brennan Center of Justice study, during the 2016 election, election officials identified 30 incidents of suspected non-citizen voting across a sample of 23.5 million votes cast in 42 jurisdictions – comprising 0.0001% of total votes cast.

It is already illegal and extraordinarily rare for non-citizens to register and to vote. Violations can lead to heavy fines, imprisonment, and deportation. What the SAVE Act actually does is to make it harder for American citizens to vote.

More than 21 million American citizens won’t have easy access to the documents required by the SAVE
Act. Furthermore, the bill would eliminate the many modes of voter registration that millions of citizens utilize: registering by mail and online, through the Department of Motor Vehicles or other state agencies, and at voter registration drives. These forms of voter registration would no longer be possible.

In the 2022 election cycle, only 5.9% of the 1 million citizens who registered to vote or updated their voter registration forms did so in person. Under the SAVE Act, everyone would have to go to an election office in person to register to vote or update their registration information. Imagine the long lines of citizens and the chaos at election offices.

The legislation would place significant staffing, financial, and bureaucratic burdens on election officials, disrupting the systems that have kept our elections running smoothly. In addition, the SAVE Act would create barriers for well over half of American citizens. Eight in ten married women have changed their last name, meaning that their birth certificate does not match their current legal name. Rural voters, working class voters, voters of color and older Americans who are less likely to hold a passport or a readily accessible birth certificate would have to secure documentation at their expense. The elderly, disabled, and rural voters may have to drive long distances to an election office.

U.S. citizens and military members abroad could have difficulty obtaining documentation and certainly couldn’t register to vote or change their voter registration in person. Tribal members with Tribal IDs that don’t normally list their place of birth may not be able to vote. Survivors of natural disasters who have lost all their personal records may not be able to vote. Inmates in jails and prisons in states like Vermont that allow them to vote will have difficulty obtaining documentation, as well as going to an election office to register.

LWVVT calls on our Vermont Sens. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and the U.S. Senate to oppose the SAVE Act and protect the rights of American citizens to be able to vote without undue hardships or obstacles. The SAVE Act is dangerous, undermining our democracy and disenfranchising sizable portions of our citizens.

Sue Racanelli lives in East Montpelier