OPPOSE the SAVE Act. 

If enacted, the SAVE Act is a highly restrictive national photo ID bill. It includes a requirement that in order to vote, all voters produce a valid, government issued, photo ID, such as Real ID card, a passport, or a military ID. All would require a photo AND a statement of birthplace, proving citizenship.

Voters could present some other federal or state photo ID that doesn't state their place of birth but that ID must be accompanied by their birth certificate with their legal name stating their place of birth or showing they are naturalized citizens.

This provision throws up roadblocks to poor people and minorities who cannot afford real IDs or passports and who may not have birth certificates. Further, it hits married women who took their husband's last names and may not be able to prove the birth name on their birth certificates. According to news reports, this provision could disenfranchise as many as 69 million American women.

Our foremothers did not work 80 years to obtain suffrage for women and we have not fought to advance voting rights for all in the ensuing 105 years to once again be relegated to second-class citizenship.

The SAVE Act is unnecessary as each state has its own provisions for proving citizenship for voting. Moreover, attempts to vote by immigrants not yet naturalized are vanishingly small. The League of Women Voters believes H.R. 22 is just another attempt to suppress the votes of valid, registered voters. It could also become a national identification card for use by the government far beyond voting.

This bill was introduced Jan. 3 and remains in committee, but the League is alarmed because House and Senate leaders have said they will move very quickly to enact bills like this one that support the new administration's social policy agenda.

Please call or write your senators and representatives and ask that they vote against the bill or that the provision be amended to protect the rights of married women.

Our congress member is Mary Gay Scanlon. Our senators are John Fetterman and Dave McCormick.

You can sign the LWVUS petition opposing the SAVE Act CLICK HERE and to learn more, get talking points, and action steps you can take to advocate against the SAVE Act CLICK HERE .