The SAVE Act doesn’t save anything

Voter suppression is nothing new to Black voters in America. Over the last two decades, numerous states have constructed obstacles to the ballot box by imposing strict voter identification laws, limiting voter registration, cutting early voting times, and even attempting to purge voter rolls.

These efforts received a boost on Thursday when the United States House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, better known as the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act would require all eligible Americans to provide proof of citizenship by presenting a U.S. passport or birth certificate when registering or re-registering to vote in federal elections. This would be on top of state voter ID laws already in place.

Why is this problematic?

The SAVE Act doesn’t save anything. It is a blatant attempt to silence voters and create more barriers that block millions from registering to vote, especially Black, brown and indigenous communities, women, and working families. The U.S. House of Representatives wants Americans to believe that the SAVE Act strengthens election integrity. FALSE. Studies have found that non-citizen voting is extremely rare, with insignificant incident rates between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent. Current voter registration systems have numerous safeguards that have proven to be effective.

More than half of American citizens do not have a passport readily available. That’s 146 million Americans, to be exact. The economic burden of securing the required documentation would impact Black voters significantly. Passports cost, on average, $165, and a birth certificate may cost up to $60. With inflation on the rise and whispers of an impending recession, Black voters should not be forced to have a mandated poll tax placed upon them when they are executing their civic duty.

Many elderly citizens in the south lack birth certificates due to historical practices, limited access to healthcare, and the lack of emphasis on birth registration in the past. Imagine having no birth certificate because you were delivered by a midwife inside your parent’s home during the 1940s and 1950s. This is the reality for many elderly citizens in rural North Carolina.

The SAVE Act will prevent voter registration online or by mail and end voter registration drives, as individuals must show proof of citizenship documentation in person. Local election officials who are already underfunded and overwhelmed will have increased administrative burdens.

Our democracy works best when all voices are heard, and our freedom to vote is protected. In the past, Congress has been on the right side of this with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

The SAVE Act is on the wrong side and is nothing more than a federal voter suppression bill designed to silence the voices of millions of Americans, including those right here in North Carolina. If Congress were to enact this legislation, it would be an enormous departure from the mission of protecting the freedom to vote.