The bill would require anyone registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship—a valid U.S. passport, or a photo ID presented with a certified birth certificate.
This presents a pretty big problem for a large group of people: women, especially married women who have changed their name, a group that numbers over 69 million. If the SAVE Act becomes law, any time one of those millions of women goes to register to vote for the first time or change their voter registration—maybe they moved to a new address—they could be turned away if the names on their identification and birth certificate don’t match.
If you have any doubts about the intent behind this rights-robbing bill just look at the men behind it.
First off, there’s Peter Thiel: billionaire MAGA donor, sugar daddy of JD Vance and a notable Trump ally. In 2009, Thiel said “the extension of the franchise to women” turned democracy into a joke.
Then, there’s Mark Thompson, a GOP-endorsed North Carolina candidate for governor in 2024, who has publicly called for a return to the days when women couldn’t vote.
This is more about the type of ID you need mixed with the cost/effort of acquiring that ID.
Essentially, changes to ID laws impact voting by:
At the end of the day, voting should be free and people shouldn’t be penalized for how they do it. These kinds of laws try to make voting time intensive and expensive, meaning many people may not be able to vote.
Passport is quite convoluted if you haven’t renewed in the last 10-15 years. I looked up the local USPS office that did it, most of them are booked out weeks or months and you have to apply before you go there to, and the scheduling on the USPS site doesn’t work for some reason