March 3, 2025
The Honorable Mark Warner
The Honorable Tim Kaine
The Honorable Eugene Vindman
Dear Senators Warner and Kaine and Representative Vindman,
I’m writing to urge you to vote no on the SAVE Act, or HR 22. This dangerous bill creates significant new and unnecessary barriers to voting that would shut millions of eligible voters out of our democracy and result in voter purges that do nothing but strip us of our freedom to vote. This bill would also effectively end online and mail voter registration across the country and threaten election officials with criminal and civil liability.
Over 21 million Americans lack easy access to the documents this law would require for voter registration. Congress must protect our voting rights and ensure that this bill does not pass.
The SAVE Act is a direct attack on our democracy. If passed, it would disenfranchise countless voters, especially naturalized citizens, voters of color, voters with disabilities, young and older voters, rural voters, and voters with low incomes – those least likely to have easy access to or resources to obtain citizenship documents like passports or birth certificates.
It endangers the voting rights of anyone who may have changed their name but doesn’t have access to an updated passport – including anyone who changed their name upon getting married. We’ve already seen the damage this policy causes. In Kansas, a similar law blocked over 35,000 eligible voters from registering before it was struck down as unconstitutional.
– 146 million American citizens do not have a valid passport (for context, 153 million Americans voted in the 2024 presidential election).
– In seven states, less than one-third of citizens have a valid passport.
Lower income Americans would be dramatically affected: only 1 in 5 Americans with income below $50,000 have a valid passport.
– 83% of women change their last name when they marry: 69 million American women may not have a birth certificate with their legal name on it and would not be able to use their birth certificate to prove citizenship. The SAVE Act does not included proof of name change or marriage certificate as acceptable proof of identity.
This bill will not protect our elections – it will silence millions of eligible voters.
Federal law already requires that only eligible citizens vote in federal elections, and all states have systems in place to enforce this. The SAVE Act would create unnecessary hurdles, push voters off the rolls, and burden election officials at a time when resources are already stretched thin.
Please vote no on this dangerous, anti-voter bill and protect our fundamental right to vote.
Sincerely,
James Landrith
Woodbridge, VA
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Sent via The Watchdog Coalition.