The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) urges the U.S. Senate to reject the misleadingly entitled “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act”, a disastrous, discriminatory, inefficient, and unnecessary bill passed by the House that would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters and upend Congress’ historic role of protecting the freedom to vote rather than suppressing it.
The SAVE Act would effectively eliminate online voter registration and severely curtail voter registration drives, methods that millions of Americans rely upon every year to register to vote or update their registrations. The SAVE Act also requires every would-be voter to arrive in person at their local elections office with the original copy of a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization certificate in order to register to vote.
These requirements create especially harsh barriers to political participation for Black people, people of color, married people who have changed their names, rural voters, poor people, and others who may have difficulty obtaining a passport or birth certificate. Only half of the total population and only a third of Black people hold valid U.S. passports, while nearly half of all Black Americans under 30 do not have a license with their current name and address. That’s not to mention the nearly 70 million Americans who have taken a spouse’s last name that may not match the name on their birth certificate.
The law would also undercut voter registration drives, which have been essential for mobilizing political participation in Black communities. If adopted, this would be an especially troubling effect as racial disparities in voter turnout have grown in the past decade.
Legal Defense Fund President and Director-Counsel Janai S. Nelson issued the following statement in response to the House’s vote on the SAVE Act:
“The SAVE Act erects a discriminatory barrier to the ballot while pretending to ‘solve’ a problem that does not exist. Its true purpose, rooted in fear of the multiracial democracy the United States can and must become, is to limit access to the ballot and stifle the political power of our increasingly diverse electorate. It’s a misnomer to call this bill the SAVE Act when it would cause nothing but harm to Black communities, rural communities, and so many others who would be stripped of their right to vote if it becomes law.
We urge lawmakers to reject this catastrophic bill and to rightfully turn their attention to advancing proposals that protect our fundamental right to have a voice in free and fair elections.”
