Congressman Mike Lawler’s sponsorship of the SAVE Act embraces a discriminatory “solution” to a problem that doesn’t exist.
It threatens to silence millions of eligible American voters.
The bill would force every voter, even those registered for decades, to show a passport or certified birth certificate to vote in federal elections. Yet voters already swear under penalty of perjury that they are citizens. Some 21 million voting American citizens (11% of the voting eligible population) won’t have all these documents, including people like me.
When I was adopted, my legal name changed, but my birth certificate didn’t. Married women who changed their last name, people that lost documents through natural disasters, seniors, people of color, and low‑income citizens will similarly be disenfranchised because they don’t have these documents.
Nearly 60 bipartisan election officials and civil rights groups agree that these new hurdles amount to cruel voter suppression that is disguised as “election integrity.” In other words,these are more lies about fictitious fraud that lead to more constraints on the rights of honest Americans from voting to healthcare.
Thirty‑six states already require some form of ID, but the SAVE Act goes far beyond any of them, according to VoteRiders. It would even punish election workers with prison time for registering voters who lack paperwork.
Worse still, the Lawler SAVE Act forces states to share voter registration lists with the Department of Homeland Security. That is another Orwellian move which consolidates personal data under federal control. It would also cripple mail and community registration drives, making participation harder for seniors, people with disabilities, service members stationed around the world, and rural residents.
All of this stems from Donald Trump’s repeatedly debunked claim that non‑citizens are stealing our elections. His own “election integrity” commission found no significant fraud. Yet Rep. Lawler keeps parroting this lie to appease Trump, rather than protecting all of his constituents.
Lawler: We don’t want any of your Crow!
Mark A. Lieberman, Yorktown, NY