If you changed your last name after getting married, your right to vote is at risk

While the nation is focused on the chaos and corruption in Washington, Republicans have quietly introduced legislation to restrict the right to vote for millions of Americans. Using the pretext of illegal voters assaulting our ballot boxes, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act severely limits who can register to vote.

In 2024, the Republican House passed this legislation. Now, they are yet again attempting to disenfranchise voters. According to the most recent census data, the U.S. has 62.18 million married couples. For individuals who change their name after getting married — as many do, especially women — every Republican member of Congress from California voted in 2024 to invalidate your voter registration. Opinion Exaggeration? Over-generalization? Unfortunately, no.

In its current form, the SAVE Act suppresses — not safeguards — voting rights by requiring that the name on an individual’s voter registration matches the name on their birth certificate. Government-issued licenses, including REAL IDs and military identification, are not acceptable, and U.S. passports are considered proof of citizenship, but only 51% of people have one.

The SAVE Act is particularly alarming because it does not accept documentation for name changes when a woman marries and takes her spouse’s last name — despite the fact that 79% of married women nationwide choose to do so, according to The Pew Research Center. Names can change from birth certificates due to adoptions, marriages or gender identity changes. Each of these circumstances suppresses the right to vote. Yet a person’s citizenship status hasn’t changed, only their name.

The SAVE Act addresses a fabricated problem with an inauthentic solution. It is already illegal for non-citizens to cast ballots in federal elections, and there are few verified instances of non-citizens voting (Brennan Center findings indicate that only 30 non-citizens voted in 42 jurisdictions with a high immigrant population in 2016, equating to 0.0001% of the vote). There’s little chance that conditions have changed dramatically or that swarms of illegal voters impact elections.

The Republican majority, however, is happy to exploit this unrealistic, unfounded fear. Our country has a long history of erecting barriers to limit or restrict voting privileges. Race, gender, age, property ownership requirements, poll taxes, literacy tests and English language tests have all been used to limit or prevent voter registration.

Rather than protect voter eligibility, the SAVE Act would ensure widespread disenfranchisement by making registration too complex and overly burdensome. California’s laws regarding voter registration accessibility will not protect us from this federal legislation. Automated voter registration would cease, and mail-in and online registration would be curtailed. Voter registrations must be done in person, assuming one has the required documentation.

Imagine the time lost if you had to present your citizenship documentation every time you moved or changed parties.

A voter’s registration may be purged and challenging to reinstate. How many voters would bother updating voter registration information every election cycle if required to do so? There is a well-known axiom: People would not fight so hard to keep others from voting if those votes didn’t matter.

Nationwide, the Republican Party has worked diligently for many years to restrict those who are eligible to vote. When reviewing the number of restrictive voting laws introduced and passed in states with Republican legislative majorities, it becomes clear that efforts are being made to limit voter participation. The SAVE Act allows Republicans to expand voter suppression efforts to the federal level, and they are undoubtedly motivated to curate an electorate that will enable them to retain power — no matter how unpopular or injurious their actions may be.

Maintaining control involves choosing who is allowed to vote and preventing those who would challenge them from doing so. The SAVE Act will likely pass the House again and move on to the Republican-controlled Senate. Should it pass, this president would undoubtedly sign it into law. Now is the time to speak up. The voting rights of millions of Americans are at risk. We must act now or lose the ability to vote in the future.

By Barbara Smith, PCDCC Vice Chair

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article301797094.html#storylink=cpy