5 ms·

Save Act would require all Americans prove citizenship when registering to vote

36 points by geox 2y ago

ks2048 2y ago
Voter ID and related laws are reasonable, but every proposal is so obviously an attempt at voter suppression, it’s a joke. Look at how “real ID” has played out - you need to plan a decade or more in advance and actively help people get the IDs.
- dmm 2y ago
  For what it's worth, when Missouri passed its voter id law they included funding to provide people free id, if needed for voting. I was working the MO secretary of state office at this time, and though I wasn't directly involved with it, I did see them help a lot of people get ids. Most of the time it was just helping people fill out forms or paying a fee for them but there were a few complicated situations. One woman had fled a domestic violence situation in another state with just the clothes on her back. She had no identifying documents of any kind. The SoS ending up coordinating with two other states to get documents and hiring a lawyer to get a judge to reestablish her identity in court. So in the case of Missouri at least, real resources were committed to get ids for anyone who asked for it. > you need to plan a decade or more in advance and actively help people get the IDs. That's probably true too.
- sebazzz 2y ago
  Voter registration is by itself a joke and voter suppression. In most of Europe every citizen gets a voting form send to their registered address together with the list of participants. They bring that with the government ID to the polling station with their government ID card, passport or driver license. Then they are allowed to vote, in confidence, and drop their voting form in the box - and that is the end of it. No voter registration, definitely no registration which party you vote, and essentially everyone is included. But maybe that is thanks to Europes relatively organized governments.
  - trilbyglens 2y ago
    Europeans definitely trust their governments a lot more than Americans have ever and probably will ever trust theirs.
dghlsakjg 2y ago
By all accounts the cases of noncitizens voting is so vanishingly small that this just isn’t an issue despite any number of initiatives and tens or hundreds of millions of dollars spent trying to prove the opposite. This waste of time and resources really puts paid to the lie that DOGE exists to reign in government spending. In terms of effectiveness, this one would be an easy thing to slash from spending.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  It’s to prevent married women from voting. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/save-act-voter-registration-citizenship-married-women-name-change/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/save-act-voter-registration-cit... https://www.salon.com/2025/02/26/a-woman-is-like-a-child-maga-quickly-turns-its-sights-on-stripping-women-of-power/ https://www.salon.com/2025/02/26/a-woman-is-like-a-child-mag...
- trilbyglens 2y ago
  It has nothing to do with actual voting integrity and everything to do with being able to point the finger at a problematic minority.
clipsy 2y ago
Given that this administration has made it crystal clear that they want to invalidate birthright citizenship, every US citizen reading this should seriously ask themselves: How would you prove that you're a citizen?
- nathanaldensr 2y ago
  Why is that a difficult question to answer? Nearly all adults have Star ID driver licenses that are basically as good as passports for that very purpose. Required documentation is consistent and easily acquired. In general, birth certificate record-keeping is extremely reliable in the US. That's not the case everywhere, though; the Philippines, for example, is notorious for easily being able to acquire fake birth certificates. In other words, Trump and DOGE have absolutely nothing to do with proving citizenship. You're just angry and emotional.
  - donohoe 2y ago
    You didn’t read the article as it demonstrated why the points you raise are wrong. Try again.
  - happytoexplain 2y ago
    >You're just angry and emotional. Just skip this part.
  - sympil 2y ago
    My birth certificate prominently has this written on the top: Can not be used to determine citizenship. I’m a natural born U.S. citizen.
    - Kon-Peki 2y ago
      Foreign diplomatic personnel stationed in the US sometimes have babies while in the US. These children get the same birth certificates as any other child born in the US, but they are not citizens. Ergo, a birth certificate is not proof of citizenship. I’d be willing to bet that >99.999% of people with US birth certificates are citizens, but it most certainly is not 100%.
henglihong-js 2y ago
[dead]
dtgm92 2y ago
Just another reason to not bother voting. I don't get how I can register a new account on a completely new tax website and file my taxes online in like 5 minutes... yet voting is still waiting in line for hours to make caveman scribbles on paper and stuff it into boxes.
- eesmith 2y ago
  I take it then you don't live in Oregon or other state with postal voting, or no-excuse absentee voting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting_in_the_United_St... > As of 2022, eight states – California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington – allow all elections to be conducted by mail. Five of these states – Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington – hold elections "almost entirely by mail."[18] Postal voting is an option in 33 states and the District of Columbia. But it sounds like you haven't voted for a long time, so might not even if your state offers an alternative. My voting in person has never taken hours, but I suspect that's because I've not lived in one of the areas where the government was attempting to suppress the vote by underfunding voting opportunities ("those who waited the longest tended to live in urban areas and were disproportionately African American and Latino" - https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/long-voting-lines-explained https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/long... ).

36 points by geox 2y ago

ks2048 2y ago

Voter ID and related laws are reasonable, but every proposal is so obviously an attempt at voter suppression, it’s a joke. Look at how “real ID” has played out - you need to plan a decade or more in advance and actively help people get the IDs.

dmm 2y ago
For what it's worth, when Missouri passed its voter id law they included funding to provide people free id, if needed for voting. I was working the MO secretary of state office at this time, and though I wasn't directly involved with it, I did see them help a lot of people get ids. Most of the time it was just helping people fill out forms or paying a fee for them but there were a few complicated situations. One woman had fled a domestic violence situation in another state with just the clothes on her back. She had no identifying documents of any kind. The SoS ending up coordinating with two other states to get documents and hiring a lawyer to get a judge to reestablish her identity in court. So in the case of Missouri at least, real resources were committed to get ids for anyone who asked for it. > you need to plan a decade or more in advance and actively help people get the IDs. That's probably true too.
sebazzz 2y ago
Voter registration is by itself a joke and voter suppression. In most of Europe every citizen gets a voting form send to their registered address together with the list of participants. They bring that with the government ID to the polling station with their government ID card, passport or driver license. Then they are allowed to vote, in confidence, and drop their voting form in the box - and that is the end of it. No voter registration, definitely no registration which party you vote, and essentially everyone is included. But maybe that is thanks to Europes relatively organized governments.
- trilbyglens 2y ago
  Europeans definitely trust their governments a lot more than Americans have ever and probably will ever trust theirs.

dghlsakjg 2y ago

By all accounts the cases of noncitizens voting is so vanishingly small that this just isn’t an issue despite any number of initiatives and tens or hundreds of millions of dollars spent trying to prove the opposite. This waste of time and resources really puts paid to the lie that DOGE exists to reign in government spending. In terms of effectiveness, this one would be an easy thing to slash from spending.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
It’s to prevent married women from voting. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/save-act-voter-registration-citizenship-married-women-name-change/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/save-act-voter-registration-cit... https://www.salon.com/2025/02/26/a-woman-is-like-a-child-maga-quickly-turns-its-sights-on-stripping-women-of-power/ https://www.salon.com/2025/02/26/a-woman-is-like-a-child-mag...
trilbyglens 2y ago
It has nothing to do with actual voting integrity and everything to do with being able to point the finger at a problematic minority.

clipsy 2y ago

Given that this administration has made it crystal clear that they want to invalidate birthright citizenship, every US citizen reading this should seriously ask themselves: How would you prove that you're a citizen?

nathanaldensr 2y ago
Why is that a difficult question to answer? Nearly all adults have Star ID driver licenses that are basically as good as passports for that very purpose. Required documentation is consistent and easily acquired. In general, birth certificate record-keeping is extremely reliable in the US. That's not the case everywhere, though; the Philippines, for example, is notorious for easily being able to acquire fake birth certificates. In other words, Trump and DOGE have absolutely nothing to do with proving citizenship. You're just angry and emotional.
- donohoe 2y ago
  You didn’t read the article as it demonstrated why the points you raise are wrong. Try again.
- happytoexplain 2y ago
  >You're just angry and emotional. Just skip this part.
- sympil 2y ago
  My birth certificate prominently has this written on the top: Can not be used to determine citizenship. I’m a natural born U.S. citizen.
  - Kon-Peki 2y ago
    Foreign diplomatic personnel stationed in the US sometimes have babies while in the US. These children get the same birth certificates as any other child born in the US, but they are not citizens. Ergo, a birth certificate is not proof of citizenship. I’d be willing to bet that >99.999% of people with US birth certificates are citizens, but it most certainly is not 100%.

henglihong-js 2y ago

[dead]

dtgm92 2y ago

Just another reason to not bother voting. I don't get how I can register a new account on a completely new tax website and file my taxes online in like 5 minutes... yet voting is still waiting in line for hours to make caveman scribbles on paper and stuff it into boxes.

eesmith 2y ago
I take it then you don't live in Oregon or other state with postal voting, or no-excuse absentee voting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting_in_the_United_St... > As of 2022, eight states – California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington – allow all elections to be conducted by mail. Five of these states – Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington – hold elections "almost entirely by mail."[18] Postal voting is an option in 33 states and the District of Columbia. But it sounds like you haven't voted for a long time, so might not even if your state offers an alternative. My voting in person has never taken hours, but I suspect that's because I've not lived in one of the areas where the government was attempting to suppress the vote by underfunding voting opportunities ("those who waited the longest tended to live in urban areas and were disproportionately African American and Latino" - https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/long-voting-lines-explained https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/long... ).