Dear John,

Extremists in Congress are attacking your right to vote. Next week, the House will vote on the SAVE Act, a bill that would make it harder for millions of eligible U.S. citizens to register to vote. We must protect voting rights and stop this dangerous bill from passing!

The SAVE Act would undo decades of voting rights progress—requiring in-person verification of specific identity documents and eliminating registration by mail, voter registration drives, and potentially even online registration.

This bill would harm voting rights for millions of eligible voters, including:

• Married women. The approximately 69 million married women in the U.S. who have taken their spouse’s surnames would not be able to use their birth certificate to prove their identity or citizenship status under the SAVE Act to register to vote. There is no option in the bill for these women (or anyone who has changed their last name due to marriage, for that matter) to use documents showing a legal name change as proof.
• Trans people. Trans people frequently change their legal names during or after transition, and so they are less likely to have a birth certificate that matches their legal name, making it challenging to register to vote under the SAVE Act. Unfortunately, Trump administration policies have also made it more difficult for trans people to obtain appropriate passports that accurately reflect their legal name and gender, leaving them with fewer alternatives to meet the bill’s rigid requirements.

Additionally, people of color, people in rural areas, and individuals with less education or lower income are significantly less likely to have a documentary proof of citizenship, which is necessary to register to vote under the SAVE Act. For example, less than half of eligible voters have a valid passport, which can be expensive and difficult to obtain.

Access to voting is a critical civil right and the bedrock of our democracy. Tell your members of Congress to vote NO on the SAVE Act.

For justice,

Alison Gill
she/her/hers
Director of Nominations & Democracy
National Women's Law Center