New York Attorney General Letitia James and a coalition of 17 other attorneys general on Monday sent a letter urging congressional leadership to reject the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
The SAVE Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by placing new requirements on Americans to provide documentary proof of their citizenship when registering to vote, even though it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in state and federal elections, and states already have methods to exclude noncitizens from the voter rolls.
Attorney General James and the coalition argue that the proposed legislation would create unnecessary and burdensome requirements that could effectively disenfranchise millions of eligible voters across the country. The coalition emphasizes that this proof of citizenship requirement would reverse three decades of progress made under the NVRA, which was designed to remove barriers to voter registration and promote greater participation in the democratic process.
In the letter to Speaker Michael Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Attorney General James and the coalition warn that the proposed legislation would create significant obstacles for eligible voters, including:
- Requiring expensive documentation such as passports or birth certificates and jeopardizing the franchise for those whose documents may not perfectly match their current names, such as married women and trans people;
- Mandating in-person presentation of citizenship documents, effectively eliminating online voter registration systems currently available in 42 states; and
- Threatening to undermine the franchise for active-duty service members who cannot return to their local election offices.
In their letter, the attorneys general highlight that 21 million voting-age citizens do not have ready access to a passport, birth record, or naturalization record, and that 80 percent of married women would not have a valid birth certificate under the SAVE Act because they chose to adopt their partner’s last name.
Joining Attorney General James in sending this letter are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
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