Voters' Rights at Risk

The U.S. president has declared outright war on our voters’ rights. Trump announced last week that he wants to eliminate ALL absentee voting. WHAT?!? That’s nuts!

Absentee/mail-in ballots and early voters represent a full 67 percent of all registered voters in the United States, which includes U.S. military members and their families serving abroad, elderly and disabled people, college students, and more. The Pew Research Center reports that only 35 percent of all voters placed their votes in person in the last election. 

Voting is one of the hallmarks of our democracy. The Constitution addresses voters’ rights specifically in the 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th amendments, which indicate our democracy’s ability to adapt and grow. 

Eliminating absentee ballots is part of the SAVE Act, too, which further threatens to turn back precious and hard-fought voting rights and disenfranchise a wide swath of our population, including women who have changed their names for marriage. 

The SAVE Act will purge millions of eligible voters from the voter rolls by adding even more restrictions and barriers to American voters.

Under the SAVE Act, voters will be required to appear IN PERSON at their local election office or polling place and present original/certified documentary proof of their citizenship (U.S. birth certificate, passport, naturalization certificate, or other DHS-approved documents). This requirement will prohibit many from registering to vote because, as The Associated Press estimates, 21.9 million people lack easy access to such documents. In fact, The U.S. State Department reports that 52 percent of all Americans don’t even have passports. 

The most highly--impacted group will be 40 percent of American women (70 percent  of married women), an estimated 69 million, because their surnames won’t match their birth certificates. In many cases, these women will have to re-register, but if they don’t have a certified copy of their birth certificate to deliver in person to their municipal clerk, they won’t be able to vote—what a sneaky way to

undo the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote!

The Save Act threatens to suppress even more American voices with its draconic restrictions. U.S. census data indicates that nearly 1 in 8 people re-register to vote every election cycle due to moves, marriages, natural disasters, etc. These uncompromising restrictions will create unnecessary hardships and effectively stifle nearly 22 million legitimate registered voters.

Unfortunately, Republicans support eliminating the right to vote for: your son/daughter in the military serving overseas, your grandparents in assisted living, your mother who changed her name after marriage, your wheelchair-bound neighbor, your child in college, and maybe even you. 

Let them know that all American citizens' voices are vital to maintain a healthy and functioning democracy. Tell them to stand against the SAVE Act. Better yet, vote them out of office while you still can.