The SAVE Act has passed the US House of Representatives, and some groups are worried it restricts the rights of married women to vote. Because most married women have changed their names to match those of their husbands, these groups have concerns that the married women will be unduly hampered in meeting the new legal requirements. Thus, their voting rights would be restricted thereby.
What The Groups Are Saying
There are concerns about Americans not having, in general, enough legal proof that they are Americans. This seems to be more prevalent amongst people of color, women, and lower-income people. Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, in particular, mounted a challenge, additionally demanding that the SAVE Act not disenfranchise such minority groups as domestic violence survivors and those living in rural areas. House Republicans voted down all her amendments.
Why This Bill Was Written
Although non-citizen voting is, by definition, not illegal as a concept, quite a few communities have adopted it to one degree or another. Also, Social Security has been used as a valid form of proof of citizenship in the past. The problem with that is all the inaccuracies with Social Security, according to this article, which raises more questions than it answers. It reveals that:
- Entries with missing and/or incomplete birth dates will default to a date over 150 years in the past.
- Social Security has not created a new system to properly track deaths, according to its Inspector General. This, despite concurrently keeping the “Full Death Master File,” the most complete federal database available. This means no one knows who is dead and who isn’t.
- 18.9 million people born before 1920 may maybe marked dead or not, or possibly or not receiving benefits. No one seems too sure about this. ALL of them are not receiving benefits, thank God.
- The uncertainty here is significant enough that there is an automatic process to stop benefits to anyone the system logs as 115 years old or older.
SAVE Act Forces One To Prove One Is Alive
House Representatives were none too reassured by this vague data from Social Security, in particular, and therefore instituted a requirement that one must show up in person with required documentation to be able to register to vote.
Proof of actual life seems to be an acceptable basic requirement; now, to the documentation required to prove one is also a citizen before being able to vote.
- Real ID which to get one, one must have already produced all the documentation required to prove citizenship.
- An ID card that does not show citizenship, accompanied by some proof of citizenship such as a birth certificate.
- Any permutation of these things to affect voter registration by citizens and lock non-citizens out at the gate.
The SAVE Act has language in it accommodating those with disabilities already, and a creative variety of ways one can prove one is a citizen. Any married woman who wants to fly on vacation with her husband has to have a Real ID. The lower-income women the groups are worried about, there is language in the SAVE Act offering a variety of alternative solutions for anyone motivated to vote.
Domestic violence victims are not particularly hampered in obtaining documentation; neither are rural folks. Nor do we want any of them to be exempt due to these circumstances. In general, people just need to get their documentation lined up if they want to vote. Being alive is indispensable in achieving the goals of the SAVE Act. Married women meet this last requirement by default, as far as anyone knows. Social Security keeps the rolls of the dead, but probably doesn’t pay them.
