Written by Alexander Ashcraft
The Trump administration has drummed up anti-immigration and xenophobic sentiments among Americans, especially among our Congressmen. With politicians now questioning what citizenship entails and who truly has it, legislation outlining how citizens and non-citizens participate in elections has reentered the political consciousness. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (H.R.22), or the SAVE Act, passed the House on April 10th. The SAVE Act is now in the Senate awaiting passage.
Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) introduced H.R. 22 and posits that it “serves as a critical first step to ensure that we maintain election integrity”. While it is true that only citizens should be allowed to vote, the means through which the SAVE Act ensures that voters have citizenship may result in voter disenfranchisement. The SAVE Act would require voters in federal elections to provide proof of citizenship. Proof includes passport or government-issued photo ID coupled with a certified birth certificate.
These requirements will disenfranchise 21.3 million American citizens who do not have proof of citizenship according to the Brennan Center. Moreover, the Brennan Center notes that some populations are less likely to have proof of citizenship: 8% of White American citizens lack citizenship documents, whereas 11% of Americans of color lack citizenship documents.
Voting will also become more complicated. This may dissuade some citizens from voting. For example, if a citizen’s name on their birth certificate is inconsistent with the name on their driver’s license, the citizen may be barred from their constitutional right to vote. People receive name changes for a multitude of reasons, most notably including marriage and transgender status. This is especially troubling for the latter as the Trump administration has heralded an uptick in transphobic sentiment.
The SAVE Act cannot be allowed to pass. Legislation that claims to protect the integrity of federal elections will instead destroy that integrity by stripping citizens of their right to vote, rather than barring non-citizens from voting. It is imperative that you write your Senators now that H.R.22 has entered the Senate. Last legislative session, the first iteration of the SAVE Act failed in the Senate; it needs to fail again this session.
