Voter Passport

The SAVE Act

This is embarrassing to admit, but I don’t have a passport. I have never needed a passport. I have never traveled outside of the United States. International travel is expensive.

I represent about 50% of the country. About half of Americans do not have a passport. For many of us, it’s not even the lack of international travel that keeps us from owning a passport. It is the cost of the passport itself. A passport is $165 in a time of inflation and high grocery prices and increasing rent and insurance rates. That’s a lot of money for folks barely making it in the first place.

What if I told you that GOP lawmakers would like to make a passport the entry fee for voting?

Pretty insane, yet that is exactly what some GOP lawmakers want to do with an act they are proposing.

It’s called the SAVE Act, and it is diabolical.

I recently updated my driver’s license to a REAL ID. It wasn’t something I did for fun…I fly for work and my old license won’t work at airports anymore. Well, it will work, but there are fees and extra screening. Who wants to do either?

Another reason I wanted the REAL ID is because of the SAVE Act.

If passed, the SAVE Act would require a voter to prove citizenship. Easy, right? No, not that easy. Let’s use my experience as an example of how difficult it is to get a Real ID.

For reference, I am an American citizen who has never traveled out of the country and who has lineage in the states since the 1700s.

I looked up the requirements for a REAL ID. They included my birth certificate, which I had to order. I was born in Louisiana, so I had to complete the process online. I also needed a debit card and $15 for the birth certificate. It arrived about a week later.

I also needed two proofs of residence, like a utility bill, which isn’t easy to get when bills are paid online. I was able to find two bills, though, and I had my Social Security card, so I was set…or so I thought.

I waited about an hour at the local DMV, and was finally called up. I pulled out all of my documents and my license and told the clerk that I was applying for a REAL ID. She looked at my documents and asked why the name on my birth certificate was different from the name on my other documents.

I told her my parents didn’t know who I would marry, and so they gave me their name. She didn’t think that was funny…

The clerk told me I needed to show proof of my name change. She told me I would need to get my marriage certificate. I pulled it out of my envelope. She told me I couldn’t use the one from my wedding. I had no idea that piece of paper was a souvenir, but I do now.

I was informed that I would need a marriage certificate from the courthouse with a raised seal. But I was married in Arkansas…I would have to apply for it. This was going to be another $10 dollars.

And then she hit me with even more news — because I have been married twice, and I changed my name both times, I would need to get both marriage certificates. That’s another $10 dollars.

So, if you’re keeping track, I was up to $35 in fees for documents and $27 for the new license for a grand total of $62. Not to mention the gas to the DMV, the time off to wait at the DMV, and the time I spent on the phone with two county courthouses trying to track down documents.

This was time consuming, but I can afford the fees and the time away from work. Not everyone is so lucky.

If the SAVE Act passes, and I am forced to use a REAL ID to vote, I will consider it a poll tax. A $62 dollar poll tax.

I will be forced to pay fees for the right to vote.

Here is the wildest part: I told my husband he might need a REAL ID to vote. He told me he already had a REAL ID and it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Really? He didn’t think that digging up marriage certificates was a big deal? And if he already had the certificate, that would have been handy information, seeing as I had just paid for them.

And then he hit me with the biggest shock…he told me he didn’t have to produce a marriage certificate. That he just used his birth certificate.

Reader, he didn’t take a new name after marriage and was sheltered from the process I had to go through to get my REAL ID.

I felt like my head would explode, and if I can interject for a moment, this is exactly why I will beg my daughters to never change their last name.

Even after all the work I put into my REAL ID, this form of identification might not work in the next election if the SAVE Act is passed. From the Committee on House Administration:

The SAVE Act’s burdens are extreme—most Americans would be unable to register to vote using their driver’s license or other state-provided identification alone. Millions of Americans, including tens of thousands in each congressional district, would be prevented from registering to vote easily, if at all.

Americans would not be able to register to vote with their driver’s license—REAL IDs do not meet the SAVE Act’s requirements of showing a holder’s citizenship, and noncitizens are legally permitted to have REAL IDs.

There it is in black and white. If passed, the SAVE Act would require a passport to prove citizenship. A document that is $165 and takes weeks to receive. Even if a voter has the time and money to dedicate to getting a passport, delays could keep millions from voting in November.

And that’s the point, isn’t it? The SAVE Act is meant to keep us from voting. It is meant to keep the GOP in power because I know there is no way in hell that they can win in November.

From MS Now:

Since Trump returned to the White House, Democrats have picked up eight Republican-controlled districts through special elections, as well as 18 seats in New Jersey and Virginia during those states’ regularly scheduled contests last November. Republicans have flipped none.

The SAVE Act was never about election integrity or keeping elections fair. It is about building a paywall around the ballot and hoping we’re too exhausted or too broke to participate.

When half the country doesn’t even have a passport, turning that into the price of admission to democracy is corrupt. It isn’t fair and it isn’t supposed to be. The SAVE Act is meant to keep us home so they can steal an election.

The SAVE Act is the “show me your papers” legislation that is un-American at its core.

~Jess

Please call your Senators and tell them to vote no on any bill or act meant to require burdensome paperwork in order to vote. You can call 202.224.3121 for the U.S. House switchboard operator.