I regret to inform you that there’s another hair-on-fire reason to call your reps. Representative Chip Roy’s (R-TX) Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE) is likely coming up for a vote soon, per Indivisible HQ. It would effectively disenfranchise millions within the US—with a disproportionate impact on married women and anyone else who has changed their name, including transgender folks. It would also basically end voting from abroad.
[ETA: Via CCL in the comments, the bill is being fast-tracked. It’s currently listed as H.R. 22, and you can follow its progress here. Thanks, CCL!]
A few of its provisions include:
- Voters must appear in person to register to vote, even if they currently reside abroad (effectively ending mail-in registration, voter registration drives, and online registration)
- Voters must provide documentary proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport with their current legal name on it (21 million people, including many married women who took their husbands’ surnames)
- Election workers who improperly register a voter—even one who is a legitimate citizen—face up to five years in prison
It would also require all states to carry out regular voter-roll purges. More delights in these explainers by the Center for American Progress (CAP), Democrats Abroad, and the Campaign Legal Center.
We do not have to imagine the impact this bill could have. There was a dry-run of it just last week in New Hampshire, which recently enacted a similar state law. From New Hampshire Public Radio:
In Hopkinton, 70-year-old Betsy Spencer did end up casting a ballot, but it took plenty of doing.
Spencer has lived and voted in Hopkinton for decades, but briefly relocated to Maine where she cast a ballot in November’s election. She moved back to Hopkinton last month, and when she arrived at the polls to register Tuesday, she thought she was prepared.
“I had my birth certificate, a change of address from the US Postal Service — everything but my blood type and the kitchen sink — and I was told I could not register to vote,” Spencer said.
The issue, Spencer said, was that her surname on her birth certificate is different from how she was registering to vote.
“When I divorced, I kept my last name for consistency with my family,” Spencer said. “The idea that women have to prove their name change is profoundly sexist and limiting.”
Spencer said after local election officials consulted with the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office, her expired passport was deemed sufficient proof of ID for her to register and vote. But she said casting her ballot ended up taking several hours.
CAP estimates that there are as many as 69 million women in the US who take their husband’s surname after marriage. While some fraction of us would be able to produce a passport, it isn’t a large fraction of us. And, while another woman voter in NH mentioned in the article was able to vote after showing her marriage license as well as her birth certificate, there is no such provision in the SAVE Act.
The ACLU has a good script in the sidebar of this page. If you’re calling in a red or reddish-purple district, be sure to mention the fact that military voters serving our nation abroad would be disenfranchised by this. We could stop this with the filibuster in the senate, but . . . well, I guess we can but try.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
TBF to Schumer et al, they did stop that awful anti-Trans sports bill by refusing to vote for cloture. I imagine this would go similarly
J. Arthur Crank
Sweet Jesus. Thanks for the heads up.
If there has been one consistent thing over the years, it has been the clear divide between the two political parties regarding voting rights and access.
Elizabelle
They are just flooding the zone with shit.
And Chip Roy is a tool.
CCL
Thank you, for bringing this up again!
This bill (H.R. 22) has been earmarked to be fast tracked through congress this year. A similar bill (HR 6281) actually passed the house last year but didn’t get acted upon in the Senate.
Here’s a link to the text of the bill and to follow its progress:
HR 22
We have two tools: the courts and the ballots. Both are seriously under attack.
Baud
cain
Yeah, we’re going to have to fight this – this is targeted at blue states. But I don’t think the federal govt can dictate how we conduct our elections, right? Someone told me on this blog that the federal govt doesn’t manage elections.
Rose Judson
@CCL: Thank you! I added the updated link to the main post.
Yes. I really hope there’s a free and fair election to vote in next November. This is part of helping ensure it’s possible.
Princess
@Baud: Good to see telling works at times.
cain
Also, won’t this fuck up all the elderly and infirm who can’t vote? It seems to me that this kills red states/red state voters than liberal ones.
I think we can all rise to the challenge, but also turn this into a demonstration of power – married women change their names back to their family name. That should anger the church goers. If all liberal women do that that means they will be represented higher than conservative women. I think Roy doesn’t know what he’s doing or the ramifications of this bill.
Betty Cracker
Added to my list of call talking points, thank you! (Not that my Repub shithead reps will take heed, but I am committed to calling them weekly regardless!)
ArchTeryx
@cain: Trouble is, there are a lot more red states, and purple states, than there are blue states. With red and purple states run by Republicans alone, they can entirely freeze the Ds out of Federal government indefinitely.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: Chip Roy always cracks me up when I hear him. Roy talks like he grew up ropin’ calves down on the Brazos, but that guy was born in Bethesda Maryland! His parents moved the family to Virginia, so Chip attended high school in eastern Loudon County.
Then Chip Roy went to college at the University of Universiity. I wonder what he talked like then.
ErikaF
Sent – and added that this act would make it difficult for all the married women in their families and friends to vote. Fortunately my rep is Al Green, so I hope this is a way he can browbeat the other Texas idiots.
CCL
Thanks, Rose. Typo in my comment above: Last year’s version of the bill was 8281 (fat fingered typing) not 6281…
@cain: Certain voting laws apply to federal elections – HAVA for example, but may not necessarily apply to state and local elections. Depends on the state and its election law regs.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: Feds can set certain parameters and enforce them, but election are conducted by states.
Mai Naem mobile
@cain: do not assume the elderly are trumpers. There was post election polling done in Phoenix and there was either no change in the elderly vote towards tfg or slight change away from him. It was the Hispanic vote that turned to tfg. I’ve forgotten the details but I believe it was Hispanic males turning more towards tfg than Hispanic females. There were, I kid you not, legit Gallego/tfg signs in South Phoenix where there’s a concentration of Hispanic voters.
Gin & Tonic
@Geminid: Like LA’s Senator Kennedy, Rhodes Scholar (wonder how he talked at Oxford.)
Baud
@Geminid:
Go Fighting Unis!
Rose Judson
@cain:
With respect, how easy and cheap do you think that is? Plus, there are other social obstacles. I know for me personally, reverting from Judson to my maiden name—even though I’m not married anymore— would cause static whenever I travel internationally with my kid, which is generally at least once a year. They ask you more questions when you don’t have the same surname.
Belafon
@Baud: Glad for that, but two issues:
Mai Naem mobile
@Geminid: Chip Roy’s also a cancer survivor. Wonder if any of his treatments got their start with NIH funding.
Betty
I think some commenters might be confusing the rules for registering to vote versus voting. The proposed act only applies to registering. Of course, it would matter to someone who is registering for the first time or moves to a new district and has to re-register. It would discourage voting which is obviously the goal.
Matt McIrvin
@cain: Well, the federal government isn’t powerless–for instance, there are federal bans on racial discrimination in elections, which, like all bans on racial discrimination, Republicans are surely trying to leverage to mandate racial discrimination on grounds of bogus ideas of what is a level playing field.
Baud
@Belafon:
Belafon
@ArchTeryx: What’s also fun about that bill is that conservative women are more likely to change their last name than liberal ones, and that gap is growing the more things like this occur.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: Kennedy has a graduate law degree from Oxford, but he was not a Rhodes Scholar.
NeenerNeener
Well, if this goes through then some of my acquaintances and my T***pie sister will no longer be able to vote after they move. That’s good.
My other sister, the reliable Dem voter, will have to change back to her maiden name if she moves though. That’s a PITA.
Cheryl from Maryland
@cain: Agreed. I know more liberal women who kept their birth name.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: I believe there is video of him (not at Oxford, but later) speaking the King’s English.
zhena gogolia
Aw Jesse Colin Young, who sang “Get Together,” has died. I loved that protest sign that repurposed the lyrics.
Matt McIrvin
@Belafon: I’m actually surprised that the law isn’t trying to disenfranchise married women whose name doesn’t match their husband’s.
Elizabelle
@Geminid:
Bethesda, MD (maybe Dad in the military?; Naval Hospital there), raised in Loudoun County (horse country far northern VA) — home to Dulles Airport, attended University of Virginia (a Wahoo).
Wondering if his parents hailed from Texas or anywhere they speak cowboy?
Sounds like a poser.
cain
So, what’s the play now? This isn’t something Dems can prevent, so we have to change our behavior right? I’m ready for FAFO.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Ah, so he’s a lawyer. Explains a lot.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@cain:
Can’t they filibuster it/deny cloture in the Senate?
Old School
@cain:
This is something Dems can prevent.
Timill
@Rose Judson: A passport in your current name is good for ID, per the original post up top.
martha
@Cheryl from Maryland: I’m one of those women. Met and married my husband later in life and decided to keep my name. My parents weren’t thrilled, but I was already the rebel, so whatever. I answer to Mrs (his name) or mine, I’m not picky.
Ohio Mom
@cain: It sounds like this is the anti- (as in anti-matter) Voting Rights Act.
My first reaction is, even though IANAL, that there has be a court case in all of this, then I remember what the Court did to voting rights the last time they had a chance.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: Why do you say Dems can’t prevent it?
Earl
@Omnes Omnibus: Because Cuck Schumer is the minority leader.
Rose Judson
@Timill: Right, I’m just saying there are plenty of good reasons why liberal women might not want to change their names back to their maiden names.
Professor Bigfoot
WE’VE GOT ANOTHER ONE!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, it seems to oddly be encouraging woman to go back their maiden names, or just not bothering to get married in the first place.
Old School
@Professor Bigfoot: After the Dems fail to filibuster voting rights, they’ll fail to filibuster ending Social Security, and then fail to filibuster the elimination of abortion rights.
I am so pre-disappointed.
Ohio Mom
For me, I think I’m set if for some reason I have to re-register to vote. I have copies of my birth certificate, marriage license and a current passport. But thinking about it, not sure if the birth certificate and marriage license are official or xeroxes though.
Like I need more errands in my life, guess I’ll be adding confirming my paperwork to the To-Do list.
SC54HI
Ha ha, Christian nationalist asshats – never changed my name at marriage, unlike your wives
Seriously – this will disenfranchise so many millions. I know thatʻs the point but its proposed scope is mind-boggling.
Eolirin
@cain: Dems can and will prevent it, this is subject to a filibuster in the senate and there won’t be the votes for cloture.
We should not be taking the decision on the part of Senate Dems that the CR was the less bad option to a government shutdown to mean that they’re suddenly going to start providing cloture for everything.
Baud
Market up, Tesla down. A good day.
A Ghost to Most
My Rep and Senators are already busy doing the right thing. And my Rep just had a baby. They don’t need me bugging them. I got my own preparations to make.
Shakti
@Belafon: I’m pretty sure a lot of conservative women don’t think they should be able to vote either. Or that they should just vote like their husbands or fathers or brothers so who cares?
I have a lot of uncharitable thoughts about these women and their self identification and their actions.
Signed, my entire government name has the entire fucking patriarchy jammed up in it. LMAO.
dnfree
My birth certificate name and the name I use don’t match even if I add my marriage license. My parents named me a fancy spelling of a first name that was very common in the mid-1940s. By the time I started school they figured out that it would be simpler to just use the common spelling, so that’s what they told the school, and that’s been my name ever since. When I got my social security number at age 16, there was a question on the form as to the name on my birth certificate, so as far as I know some hand-written document from 1962 would have to be found to prove I’m me.
WaterGirl
I may have to click Dagaetch’s beautiful photo in the sidebar about a dozen times to calm myself.
(Reminder, if you click on those images you see the bigger version.)
dnfree
@cain: Yeah, that sounds easy….I remember what a pain it was to change everything when I got married decades ago. I’ve had this name more than 50 years, a lot longer than I had my “maiden” name.
mrmoshpotato
Oh, all the dumbshits who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a highly qualified black woman..
ETA – Chip Roy has been married since 2004. I’d be fine with him being punched in the dick for the next 21 years.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: It’s a very nice photo. Wish I could throw it on my TV. Do you know where that’s taken?
Cheryl from Maryland
@martha: same here from my 1979 marriage. Had to ask the for the manager at the Maryland DMV just two years ago when the clerk demanded to see my marriage license to get a car title in my name only. This with Wayne’s death certificate naming me as his spouse. Manger agreed with me in 3 seconds.
lou
Another thing that makes this ridiculous is the onerous Real ID drivers’ licenses that Bush 2 got passed decades ago and finally are implemented. I thought I was going to have to sacrifice a kid goat to get my DL renewed because of all the paperwork and proof you had to show.
Ben Cisco
“Well, this all seems… horrible.”
\Bruce Banner
I’d say ol’ Chip hasn’t thought this through, but that presumes he’s capable of doing so and…LOL NOPE
Martin
Most people don’t have passports. And Republicans have been passing bills in states limiting how you can change your birth certificate to block trans people, so changing your birth certificate to match your married name (which is an odd thing to do, IMO) may not be that easy either.
But it really does send further signals to young women that men just hate them.
Melancholy Jaques
@Eolirin:
I guess I’m one of those assholes that is going to expect them to continue to roll over until they don’t. Try not to hate me.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: The media library says:
If you search for that in the box in the upper right hand corner, you would find the post that might have even more detail.
Geminid
@Baud: Oh…snap! That should read “Roy went to college at the University of Virginia.”
Gin & Tonic
Both of my daughters decided to keep their “maiden” name after they got married. Which is kind of funny, because they could have had a much simpler surname if they took their husband’s name (both of them) yet chose not to.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: I don’t think Roy had family ties to Texas. He went to law school at the University of Texas (I think) and that was a connection.
I recall from Roy’s biograghy that his parents had some professional connection with the Republican party apparatus in D.C. And my impression is that Loudoun County was somewhat of a magnet for conservatives in the 1960s and afterwards.
Elizabelle
Anybody got any Guinness or Jameson or other good stuff in their future?
Sick of talking about Republicans.
Old School
Truth Social:
Hunter and Ashley Biden’s Secret Service protection ended immediately.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
Cariboo Malt, an 8% amber beer brewed in Prince George, BC, starting around 4:30pm.
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid: even more reason to despise him!
Jay
deleted.
Baud
Reddit
Steve in the ATL
@Elizabelle: I’m drinking some high quality Irish wine. HA! As if. It’s French, but they are EU like Ireland so it totally counts.
Elizabelle
@Jay: Prost!
Elizabelle
@Steve in the ATL: They are all threatened with tariFFS.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Just find Kelly.
:)
gratuitous
Hmmm. The right of citizens to vote is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” But if this is the way Republicans want to play, surely they will have no reason to oppose similar abridgements or infringements on the rights of citizens under the Second Amendment. Right?
Steve in the ATL
@gratuitous: I assume you are unfamiliar with SCOTUS.
Jay
While I know that MAGgot’s are not swayed by facts, and DJTdiot hasn’t learned anything new since 1978,
Canada vs. the US.
CDN Minimum Wage, $17.30 CDN*
USA, $7.25 USD
CDN Federal Median Income Tax rate, 20.5%
USA, 22%
CDN Health Care and low income Dental care, included with taxes.
USA, $7,000 average, (YMMV)
CDN Banking Regulations, strong (Consumer protections)
USA, weak
CDN Unionization rate, 30%
USA, 10%
CDN paid parental leave, up to 78 weeks,
USA, 0
*Federally mandated, there are no carve outs for tips.
Elizabelle
Does Ireland even have wine? Has anyone ever tried it?
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@lou: Come sit by me. I took all my info (including passport), and had to go to SS to get a new card with my married name on it so all the docs matched. Surprisingly, my original SS card only had my maiden name on it since I got it in my Junior year of HS. Ended up getting a new Medicare card (and new number) because of the name change. Whew!
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Nipper! Love that dog.
Steve in the ATL
@Elizabelle: god I hope not. That’s my answer to both questions.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: Oh, man. Love the Youngbloods. Never did get to see Jesse during his solo career, closest I came was when he was coming to this one bar I played at on the Front Range the week after we were there. Unfortunately, I had another gig elsewhere that same weekend.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
Ireland has wineries and Award winning wines, mostly whites.
karen gail
I discovered when went to get new drivers license that didn’t have all the paperwork needed; divorced and living in different state from where married. So if I go online to order one, they ask for money then they send you paperwork don’t know if it has to be notarized or not (was told in some cases it is required).
Someone told me I should have changed name back to maiden name at divorce; which would have required changing name on all other legal documents as well as my credit score is tied to married name. I have had this last name for nearly 40 years, have no desire to go back to last name that haven’t had since 1970.
Steve in the ATL
@Jay: I stand by my response!
karen gail
As a nation the US doesn’t want to admit that they make it as difficult as possible for women to vote; I have heard more than one white male say that women should have never be allowed to vote they are too emotional.
When you look at some of the shit coming out one can honestly say that MAGA, GOP and white patriarchy is doing everything they can to return to days when only white males were allowed to vote.
Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
None of the reviews end with “and lingering notes of peat”.
frosty
It’s just one thing after another isn’t it? I haven’t called my Rep about the deportations and disobeying a court order and now this.
It’s by design, to wear me out, I’m sure.
Philbert
I read the proposed law a while back from what I could tell wading through it, it indicated name-changed people would be ok if they show ‘adequate’ documents. Still the point is to make way more difficult.
Kristine
@Miss Bianca: Darkness, Darkness is a favorite song.
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
I check Forbes THE WORLD’S REAL-TIME BILLIONAIRES – Today’s Winners and Losers – Reflects changes since 5pm EST of prior trading day every day.
It shows the top of the list, which is current, 1-4, Elon Musk,
Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg.
Plus the 4 top winners and 4 top losers. (I assume billionaires only, but the top losses are typically upwards of a billion dollars.)
Denali5
My son lives abroad, but is registered to vote in Colorado. I hope this would not affect him.
chemiclord
@Melancholy Jaques: They already didn’t roll over on an anti-trans bill. There’s been a couple other bills that I recall they didn’t pass cloture on either.
Dems do plenty of things worthy of criticism. There’s no need to make things up to drag them for.
pajaro
@cain:
The Constitution gives general authority to states to set rules for elections for Congress, etc., under Article I, but Congress may alter those rules for federal elections. Congress also has power to legislate rules to enforce Constitutional Rights for both state and federal offices. (like the Voting Rights Act)
What I find insanely complicated about this, given Chip Roy’s bill, is that Congress would have no inherent authority to mandate that a state adopt the “voter safety” protections he’s insisting upon for state level offices. So a state like Virginia, which has different days for federal and state elections, for example, could attempt to run elections with different sets of qualifications for its separate elections for state offices than it did for federal.
Eolirin
@chemiclord: Never mind that the point of capitulation that’s shaking people’s faith was a situation in which both options were very bad, and there’s no comparable downside to opposing the SAVE act cloture vote. It’d be something else if it’s eventually attached to the debt ceiling increase. But I don’t think the Republicans are quite that far gone yet.
I do worry about those negotiations since the worst thing the CR did was make it clear that Democrats in the senate aren’t willing to blow up the government even if they have to eat some shit. There’s no way they’ll be willing to blow up the credit worthiness of the US if they won’t allow a shutdown. If an ugly debt ceiling bill gets through the house, though I think it’s an even heavier lift for them than the CR was, Senate dems may have to eat it.
This is one of the consequences of caring about outcomes. And it’s an ugly asymmetry that hurts us in these situations.
If the house ultimately can’t get a bill through without democratic votes, we’re safe on that front. But that was the hope with the CR too.
But at the end of the day, we need to be able to win big in upcoming elections, and we need mass mobilization of citizens in protest of administration actions.
Msb
@Betty: overseas voters have to re-register every year that they wish to vote. This will not be a light burden on us. We note that nobody is reducing our obligations as citizens, such as having to file tax returns (though 88% of overseas taxpayers owe nothing to the US), while they are busily attacking one of our few rights.
Msb
@Denali5: it will unless your CO carries registrations forward. Pro-voting states such as OR and CA, do that. Red states require overseas voters to re-register for every election year.