… and now they are coming for our voting rights. Sign the petition to demand Congress vote no on the SAVE Act!
Dear MoveOn member,
Right now, Republicans in Congress are fast-tracking a bill to make it more difficult for us to vote. The misleadingly named Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would require everyone to provide proof of citizenship when registering or re-registering to vote by presenting a passport or birth certificate.1 As a result, millions of currently eligible voters would be disenfranchised and future generations disincentivized and blocked from voting.
Currently, 21 million U.S. citizens of voting age do not have proof of citizenship readily available, only about half of American adults have a passport, and millions lack access to a paper copy of their birth certificate, which under the SAVE Act, would jeopardize their ability to vote.2 And tens of millions of people, primarily women, who changed their last name after getting married could be disenfranchised because their name no longer matches their birth certificate.3
Do you know where your birth certificate is? If you’re married and changed your last name, does your birth certificate or passport match your new name? Have you ever experienced a natural disaster and had your documents destroyed? Have you recently moved and changed your address? Like millions of other Americans, are you so strapped between work, child care, and other obligations that taking the time to find or obtain new documents just isn’t in the cards at a moment’s notice when it’s time to vote? These are just some of the conditions that could block millions of people from voting under this legislation.
Will you sign the petition NOW to send a strong message to Congress that we reject any attempts to strip away our freedom to vote? Every eligible person in our country should not only be allowed to vote, they should be encouraged and supported in doing so. It’s shameful that this current administration is actively discouraging people from exercising this fundamental and foundational right.
ll Congress to reject the SAVE Act, a voter suppression bill that would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters and create unnecessary hurdles to prevent future generations from registering to vote!
The impact of this legislation would be felt broadly. For many, it would be a great nuisance, but for others, it could mean barriers that are too high to overcome or a flat-out loss of the ability to vote. The SAVE Act would impose major hurdles to voting for low-income voters and the millions upon millions of people who have ever changed their last name through marriage, as well as young people, rural communities, people living on tribal lands, unhoused people, and, disproportionately, people of color.
And forget registering or re-registering to vote by mail or online. The SAVE Act would functionally eliminate these options, as you would need to ultimately show up in person to prove your citizenship. The same goes for in-person voter registration drives that are common on college campuses, at community centers, and at events to engage people who often face high barriers to voting.4 This step alone could prevent millions of people from voting, which is the bill’s exact intention.
And for what? The existence of widespread voter fraud has been repeatedly debunked.5,6 While Republicans in Congress say this is about election integrity, we know the truth. It’s about attempting to take us back to a time when just a wealthy, white few had a say and, collectively, we had fewer freedoms.
Republicans in Congress are blatantly attempting to strip away our freedom to vote to further push their billionaire-backed agenda. They know their agenda of tax cuts for the wealthiest, gutting public education, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and more is so unpopular that in order to advance it, they must take away our right to have a say. We need to be loud in our opposition to ensure that every Democrat rejects this bill and Republicans know there will be consequences for their support.
Thanks for all you do.
–Kelsey, Aliya, Justin, Julia, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “The SAVE Act: What to know about the bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote,” Axios, February 11, 2025
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/11/save-act-what-to-know
2. “House Bill Would Hurt American Voters,” Brennan Center for Justice, January 31, 2025
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/house-bill-would-hurt-american-voters
3. “Married Women Could Be Stopped From Voting Under SAVE Act,” Newsweek, February 13, 2025
https://www.newsweek.com/married-women-stopped-voting-save-act-2029325
4. “The SAVE Act Would Hurt Americans Who Actively Participate in Elections,” Brennan Center for Justice, February 20, 2025
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/save-act-would-hurt-americans-who-actively-participate-elections
5. “How Republicans mainstreamed the baseless idea of noncitizen voting in 2024,” NPR, October 18, 2024
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/16/nx-s1-5147790/noncitizen-voting-claims-trump
6. “Exhaustive fact check finds little evidence of voter fraud, but 2020’s ‘Big Lie’ lives on,” PBS News, December 17, 2021
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/exhaustive-fact-check-finds-little-evidence-of-voter-fraud-but-2020s-big-lie-lives-on
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