Target: John Thune, U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Goal: Do not make voter registration process more difficult for large populations of Americans.
69 million married women, 146 million Americans without a passport, and 21 million Americans with a missing birth certificate: these are just some of the individuals who could soon find it infinitely more difficult to vote in the United States. Low-income individuals, Americans living in rural areas, people of color, older people, disabled citizens, and even military members could also face significant roadblocks in choosing their elected leaders. The obstacles are being put up under the guise of eliminating voter fraud: an issue consistently proven to be minimal and insubstantial by countless researchers. Voter suppression, however, is alive and well.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act recently passed the lower chamber of Congress, largely along partisan lines. The bill requires every American to register to vote in person and with proof of citizenship in hand. Proof of citizenship typically includes either a birth certificate or a passport, which would pose an immediate problem for the millions of aforementioned citizens who lack either document.
The identifications of married women would not match their birth certificates if they have changed their last names, which could also cause a problem with registration. In addition, many older Black Americans do not even have the luxury of a birth certificate if they were born during the era of segregation. And IDs of indigenous Americans often do not list citizenship.
Aside from the documentation issue, the law will also create serious impediments for Americans who cannot easily travel to a registration site. These groups include the elderly, the disabled, and overseas military. Mail-in or online registration would be prohibited under the proposed law. And if registration workers try to make any compromises for affected Americans, they could be charged with breaking the law and serve jail time.
A motion that would have paused the act until these issues could be resolved was vetoed by majority House members. Sign the petition below to demand the Senate end this bill that disenfranchises, not empowers American voters.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Senator Thune,
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act is a gross refutation of its name, and it will do nothing to save the right to vote of average Americans. Putting up multiple roadblocks to voting in the hopes of catching one or two isolated instances of illegal voting does nothing but disenfranchise voters and cause a loss of faith in the process. Are you aware that tens of millions of people born in this country lack the documents to prove their citizenship, either because of disadvantage or because of everyday inconveniences like moving? Nearly half of Americans do not have a passport, and 21 million do not have physical possession of their birth certificates.
Many of your colleagues have long been proponents of marriage, so will you punish married women by making it harder for them to vote if they took the names of their spouses? Will you punish the older, the sick, or the rurally located Americans if they cannot make it to a physical registration site? Or will you punish the Americans who are serving their country overseas by denying them the opportunity to participate in the cornerstone of American democracy?
Save voting by sinking the SAVE Act.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Michael Fleshman
.jpg){kind=link}