The SAVE Act Threatens Women’s Ability to Vote
Episode 507 | Author: Emilie Aries
What is the SAVE Act, and how can we protect women’s votes and voices?
A bill making its way through Congress could jeopardize voting for up to 69 million American women. In April, the SAVE Act (which stands for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) was passed through the U.S. House of Representatives with unanimous Republican support.
But voter’s rights advocates claim that if this bill becomes law, it won’t solve widespread voter fraud (which, to be clear: is not a thing), but it could seriously jeopardize women’s access to the polls if they happen to have changed their legal name since birth - including a name change due to marriage.
Let’s take a closer look at this legislation and consider whether concerns from women and voter rights activists across the country are legitimate or overblown.
What is the SAVE Act?
The SAVE Act is intended to solve the problem of voter fraud—specifically non-Americans attempting to cast their votes. While this has been a favored talking point of this administration since President Trump’s previous term, the truth is that voter fraud is extremely rare in this country. In fact, the idea of non-citizens trying to vote doesn’t even make sense, if you think about it. Why would an undocumented person risk their chance at future legal status or call unneeded attention to themselves just to vote in an election? It doesn’t add up, and that may be why it’s not a widespread problem.
Regardless, the Act presents itself as a solution to this non-issue by requiring all voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote, in the form of a passport or birth certificate. Innocuous as this sounds, voting rights activists say this could leave millions of American voters scrambling.
Why is the concern more than just media hyperbole?
Setting aside, for now, the fact that more than half of Americans don’t have a passport, the problem with the SAVE Act lies in the requirement that a voter’s name on their registration match their citizenship documentation. There’s a big group of people for whom this is an issue.
The tens of millions of women who changed their names in marriage could now be required to spend weeks or months tracking down or pursuing legal paperwork—this is time, not to mention funds, that busy working moms and other people living paycheck to paycheck don’t have easy access to.
Though Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, downplayed this concern, noting that the text of the bill explains how to avoid that issue, this legislation puts a significant extra burden on women that it simply doesn’t place on men.
If your first thought is that this potential issue is just an accidental side effect of the bill and the Republicans couldn’t possibly be trying to reduce the number of women voters (who have leaned Democratic compared to men since 1980), consider the response to Maryland Representative Maxine Dexter’s proposed amendment: Dexter suggested that the bill include language that would ensure that eligible women whose names didn’t match their birth certificates could still vote. The suggestion was swiftly denied..
What can we do to prevent this threat to women voters?
If the potential of this bill to derail more than 100 years of women’s right to vote alarms you as much as it does me, keep an eye out for when the Senate expects to take up the issue. And even before the bill is up for a vote in the Senate, start reaching out to your senators now. Put pressure on them to vote in the best interests of not just women but democracy. A country where unnecessary barriers make it difficult for millions of U.S. citizens to vote in elections isn’t one built on democratic values.
Check out the resources I’ve shared below to learn how to easily get hold of your senator and make your concerns heard. Because if our vote doesn’t count, our voice doesn’t count:
5 Calls, “Oppose the SAVE Act (H.R. 22) - A Voter Suppression Bill - Passed House” - https://5calls.org/issue/save-act-voter-suppression/
Congress.Gov, Find Your Members - https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
What are you reading and hearing about the SAVE Act? What steps do you propose we take to make sure that our distress over this bill echoes throughout America more loudly than those who would stifle our voices? Join the Courage Community on Facebook or our group on LinkedIn to take up the fight.
Related Links From Today’s Episode:
5 Calls, “Oppose the SAVE Act (H.R. 22) - A Voter Suppression Bill - Passed House”
Congress.Gov, Find Your Members
Read the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act
Politico, “The House Passed the SAVE Act. What Comes Next?”
CAP, “The SAVE Act Would Disenfranchise Millions of Citizens”
YouGov, “Adults under 30 are more likely than older Americans to have a current U.S. passport”
NPR, “Will the SAVE Act make it harder for married women to vote? We ask legal experts”
CAWP, “Gender Gap: Voting Choices in Presidential Elections”
Karoline Leavitt Defends GOP's SAVE Act Amid Uproar
Democratic Women’s Caucus, Maxine Dexter discusses her amendment
TAKE ACTION on more women’s rights issues:
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[INTRO MUSIC IN]
EMILIE: Hey, and welcome to the Bossed Up podcast, episode 507. I'm your host, Emilie Aries, the Founder and CEO of Bossed Up. And today I want to talk all about the SAVE Act and why so many women are worried about losing our access to the polls, to casting our votes, even if we very much are U.S. Citizens and are eligible to vote in this country. I want to talk about why this is so worrisome for women and for everyone who cares about democracy in our country and why we have to pay attention and we have to take action.
So, first, what is the SAVE Act? Well, first of all, it's an acronym. It stands for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. And it was a bill passed in the U.S. House just last month with unanimous Republican support and four Democratic votes, which is disappointing. This bill seems innocuous at first glance for, especially for reasonable people who want to make sure there's no voter fraud in this country, in that the bill would require all eligible voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship in order to vote. The devil's in the details on this one, though. And it also is solving for a problem that scholars agree is not a real problem. Like, voter fraud is wildly rare in this country. Why would you risk voting in an election you're not eligible for if that would completely blow up your entire immigration status, too? Like, widespread voter fraud is not a problem in our country, and it's not happening is what I mean. It's not happening in this country.
So this is a supposed fix for that. And this all seems pretty innocuous until you recognize the fact that this is a enormous hurdle for providing paperwork that many Americans might not have, or if they do have it, is not readily available. So the kinds of proof of citizenship that would work in ensuring that you're eligible to vote include a passport or a birth certificate. And voting rights activists say this could potentially disenfranchise millions of American voters. And the bill is going to be up for review in the Senate now, but it's not yet scheduled a date for it’s vote as of today, as of this recording.
Now, interestingly, this isn't the first time that the SAVE Act has made an appearance. It actually passed in the last Congress through the U.S. House, but failed in the Democratically controlled Senate. So that has me and so many folks who care about voter rights and women's rights in particular, concerned because we have a Republican controlled House and Senate now.
All right, so why are women so concerned? Well, for as many as 69 million American women, who have taken on their spouse's name in marriage, Their birth certificates will no longer match the names that they use today that they've registered to vote with, which has the potential to truly kick them off the voter rolls and make voting not an option for these very much eligible to vote American citizen women. Beyond that, more than half of all Americans don't have a passport. Now when I started seeing a lot of headlines about this, I was like, there's no way, there's no way that they could actually be coming for women's votes, right? Like I know that this administration is just leaving me shocked in new and creative ways every single week, but I was like, is this just partisan hyperbole? Are we just all getting our feathers in a, you know, ruffled for no real reason? They can't possibly be serious about passing a law that would disenfranchise like 69 million American women and make it harder for them to vote or make it almost impossible for them to vote, right?
And then I saw this press conference during which time Karoline Leavitt spoke on behalf of the White House and gave this like 1984-esque doublespeak non-answer that really got me worried and caused me to take a second and closer look at this issue. So let's take a listen to what Karoline said when asked directly about the passage of the SAVE Act and what she would say to allay the concerns of married women who were worried about this very issue. Here's what she had to say,
[AUDIO CLIP OF KAROLINE LEAVITT PRESS CONFERENCE]
KAROLINE LEAVITT: Well, the SAVE Act, as you mentioned was passed by the House yesterday. This is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. I believe I'm getting that correct. And this act is a common sense measure. It would require proof of citizenship for voting in our elections. The Democrats have been fear mongering about this bill, have been saying that married woman, if their name has changed, they didn't change it on their identification, would not be able to vote. That is complete fallacy. There are outline in the bill about how to avoid that. The president very much supports a common sense solution to ensuring that only citizens can engage in our elections. This is critical to improving the integrity of our elections and also the trust that American citizens need to have in our electoral process. So the President supports this bill and that is a myth that has been proven wrong by the text of this bill. And I believe some of the co-sponsors of the bill have been very vocal in addressing that. And certainly I myself as a married woman would not stand before this podium if the president did not support such a common sense measure.
[AUDIO CLIP ENDS]
EMILIE: Okay, so when Karoline Leavitt it said that the text of the bill allows for provisions for married women to still access their right to vote. What is she talking about here? What she's talking about is the fact that the text of the bill allows for states to choose, states to choose. They're doing the states rights thing again, this song and dance again, whether they want to accept additional documents beyond birth certificates and proof of citizenship like a passport.
So, for instance, states could decide that a legal decree reflecting a name change would be acceptable when proving citizenship and trying to enroll to vote. Or states could choose to accept marriage licenses in order to again prove citizenship and prove that your name matches your birth certificate, matches your marriage certificate, matches your current name. And therefore, if those states choose to allow for those additional documents to be accepted, then those married women with that name change could gain access to vote. Yikes. Like, that's a big bunch of ifs in there.
So technically, is Karoline Leavitt wrong? No, technically she's not wrong, but practically, this is a huge, huge problem that's going to result in a ton of women, particularly married women, to have a lot of obstacles, a lot of hoops to jump through in order to vote. And this is particularly relevant when you're enrolling to vote or registering to vote for the first time, or renewing your registration. Let's say you moved and you need to renew your registration. This is an additional enormous burden that we're placing on married women to sort of find their marriage certificate, get a legal decree about your name change reflecting your name change. And that's on top of just finding your birth certificate or having a passport, right? That is a huge, huge problem.
As Tracy Thomas, a professor of constitutional law, told NPR, “obtaining that marriage certificate is an additional cost, administrative burden, and extra penalty that other voters don't have to do”. These might all seem like trivial costs, but they all add up. There's also time delays and administrative inconvenience and burden at each step that creates more obstacles and discouragement to voting. Upon further review, this is a terrifying provision. The bottom line here is, it's hard to not read into this as a power grab by GOP, by the Republican Party, because after all, it is in their interest to reduce the number of women who are voting in America.
According to the Rutgers University Center for American Women in Politics, in every presidential election since 1980, a gender gap has been apparent with a greater proportion of women than men preferring the Democrat in each race. So we know that women are leaning Democrat. Women are reliable Democratic voters. Not all women, but a majority of women. And this is especially true for young women compared to their young male counterparts who have really shown an even bigger gender gap when it comes to the partisan divide of Gen Z.
And the conspiracy theorist in me is trying to be reserved, right? I'm trying not to, like, read into the deep state here because that's what this hyper polarized media climate wants us all to think. But, when you look at the facts of the matter, this is deeply, deeply concerning. But Emilie, you might say that's not what they mean. That's not what they're trying to do. They're still making it possible for women to vote. So what if it's a little harder for married women to vote? That's not their intention. Okay, to which I reply, well, then why did this Amendment in the U.S. house introduced by Representative Maxine Dexter of Maryland, get shut down? She introduced an amendment that would simply add language to the text of the bill to make sure that eligible women whose names didn't match their birth certificate were still given access to vote. Here's what she had to say at her press conference today.
[AUDIO CLIP FROM MAXINE DEXTER PRESS CONFERENCE]
MAXINE DEXTER: I introduced an amendment that would have stopped this bill from being implemented, unless we could just certify that no eligible married woman would be denied the right to vote, that should go without saying. Republicans blocked it. Let me repeat that. Republicans voted down my amendment that just would have ensured that women who are eligible and registered could still cast their ballot. This puts up to 70 million women at risk of disenfranchisement. 70 million. That's one in four voters in this country. And the burden will fall hardest on working mothers, caregivers, those juggling jobs, and families who have barely a moment to spare. It's outrageous that in the year 2025, more than a century after the 19th Amendment was ratified, we still have to defend a woman's right to vote. But we will, every single day if that's what it takes.
[AUDIO CLIP ENDS]
EMILIE: I mean, the fact of the matter is, she's right. I'm staring at the paperwork on my desk that I've had printed here for like, two months to try and get my baby's birth certificate, which is a pain in the a**. I'm sorry to put it so bluntly, but it is a pain in the butt to go get paperwork from the government. And I have a ton of privilege and a pretty cushy job and a ton of autonomy and great childcare, even though I definitely pay a lot of money for my childcare.
And even with all the support from family and local support network that I have, it's hard to get yourself to those offices, fill out the paperwork, get all the licenses. And what we're really saying here is that it's those women who are already eligible to vote, who are already U.S. Citizens, who will have the hardest time when they have to re-enroll to vote, or if they move, or if they have to re-register for any reason, or if they're registering for the first time. We're putting the onus on them to provide extra, additional paperwork that their male counterparts just don't have to provide. And that is a huge burden, especially if you don't have a car, especially if you don't have, if you're working three different jobs, you don't have the luxury of time of navigating our bureaucracy that is our government.
So what can we do about this? If you, like me, are alarmed at the SAVE act and its potential to have disastrous impacts on a woman's right to vote in this country, join me in keeping our eye on the prize here. We need to make sure we're paying attention to when this is going to be up for a vote in the U.S. Senate. And we need to put pressure on our senators like we've never put pressure on them before. Specifically, I'm talking to you Republican women. I'm talking to you women who live in Republican states. Where you live in a red state, you have way more leverage. So I want you to be calling your senators when this comes up for a vote non-stop.
There's a couple of great resources I'll drop in today's show notes and um, in today's corresponding blog post. But 5calls.org or even just Congress.gov has a great tool for navigating how to make those calls and making them as easy as possible. We need to hear outrage over this bill. This is not partisan hyperbole. There is a real threat to women's enfranchisement here on women's, women's access to the polls that could have disastrous impacts on elections for years, if not generations to come. They already rolled back the clock on Roe in a way that nobody thought was possible. That a lot of women thought, no way is abortion going to go away. No, it's not gone away. They've just made it extremely inaccessible for people who need it most and women are dying as a result of that.
The same playbook is being played out before our very eyes right now when it comes to the women's vote. It feels like we are back in the suffragette era. It's like, what is happening right now? The way the clock has been turned back on our rights is just dizzying. But this is not the time to bury your head in the sand. Trust me, I've been there for most of this year, honestly. This is a time where we need to put the pressure on and we need our dudes to put some pressure on Congress too, right? Men care about women's rights too. So let's make sure we're asking for the support we need to make our voices heard.
I want to hear what you have to say about the SAVE Act. What are you reading? What are you hearing? What did I miss in today's conversation? What do you think we need to do to make sure we're raising the proper alarm bells here and that this actually breaks through? Because I get it, we're being inundated on so many fronts right now, but this is absolutely foundational to women's rights at work, at home and everywhere. Because if our vote doesn't count, then our voice doesn't count.
Let's keep the conversation going as always in the Bossed Up Courage Community on Facebook or in the Bossed Up Group on LinkedIn. And if you want a transcript of today's episode or an easy to share blog post, because sharing this message is one of the best ways you can spread the word about this, head to bossedup.org/episode 507 that's bossedup.org/episode507.
[OUTRO MUSIC IN]
And until next time, let's keep bossin’ in pursuit of our purpose and together. As it was said way back in 1896 by America's first black women's clubs, who use this as their motto, let's keep lifting as we climb.
[OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]
