I’ve been called dramatic once or twice in my life I’ll admit, but this week the SAVE Act passed the House with support from four Democrats, so excuse me while I scream into a black hole of women’s rights.
The GOP-controlled House passed the SAVE Act, or the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, is a bill to impose completely unnecessary voter registration requirements with the potential to keep millions of people from voting— especially married women— by requiring you to register to vote or update your voter registration in person, and present a passport, birth certificate, or other citizenship documents.
Why is this a problem? As many as 21.3 million American citizens—a tenth of the electorate—don’t have access to citizen documents ie a passport. About 69 million American women who changed their last names after getting married may lack the documents needed to prove their identity and name change to register to vote. The Democratic Women’s Caucus in Congress told Jezebel in a statement that the bill’s passage marks “a dark day for women” in the U.S. “If women can’t register, we can’t vote. 105 years after finally gaining the right to vote, we cannot afford to lose our voice.”
The bill, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Md.) passed the House by a 220 to 208 margin on Thursday, with backing from four Democrats (WTAF): Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Henry Cuellar of Texas, and Ed Case of Hawaii. President Trump has been vocal about his support of the bill. Shocker!
Obviously, Republicans are trying to downplay the SAVE Act’s impact on women' voters, pointing out that women can present their marriage license along with their citizenship documentation, but the additional barrier to cast our vote means nearly 70 million voters are up against unnecessary hurdles that men just don’t face. The Handmaid’s Tale is no longer a fictional threat but a reality in what once was the world’s richest democracy.
There is a chance this piece of legislation will die in the Senate but really, who knows anything for certain these days?
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