Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2025

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by Shane Harris

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Democrat scaremongering over common-sense election integrity measures may have reached its most absurd level yet. In the latest manufactured outrage, liberal politicians and their erstwhile media allies are now claiming that the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act will make it “impossible” for married women to vote and practically end American democracy as we know it.

The House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act last week by a vote of 220-208. The bill takes several basic steps to ensure that noncitizens cannot cast ballots in federal elections, which has become a serious threat following the flood of 10-20 million illegal aliens that poured across the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration.

Specifically, the SAVE Act “requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.” It also mandates that states “take affirmative steps on an ongoing basis to ensure that only U.S. citizens are registered to vote” and “allows for a private right of action against an election official who registers an applicant to vote in a federal election who fails to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship.”

Even in our era of a hyper-polarized Congress, four House Democrats crossed the aisle to vote in favor of the SAVE Act – a sign that it’s hardly part of some evil conservative plot to undermine voting rights. To anyone with even a semblance of objectivity or reason, the bill seems like a logical measure to enhance protections against noncitizens illegally casting ballots and establish penalties for anyone who knowingly facilitates noncitizen voting.

Unfortunately for the American people, Democrats and the corporate media are far from objective or reasonable.

The coordinated panic campaign began almost immediately after the bill’s passage, with PBS, NPR, CBS, USA Today, Newsweek, The AP, MSNBC, and scores of other outlets reporting that the SAVE Act will make it more difficult for married women to vote. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) went even further, claiming that the bill would make it “impossible” for married women to vote and would be a “ban on married women voting.”

But what does a bill designed to prevent noncitizens from voting have to do with married women?

The supposed concern stems from the SAVE Act’s requirement that individuals provide a form of ID that verifies citizenship – like a passport or birth certificate. Democrats argue that since most married women have changed their last name, their birth certificate won’t match their driver’s license, and that many women don’t have (and apparently cannot obtain) a passport.

Both of these assertions are worth examining in detail, as they expose the dishonesty behind Democrats’ opposition to the SAVE Act and the contempt that the left has for everyday Americans.

First, it is true that for a married woman (or anyone) who has changed her name, her birth certificate will not match her driver’s license. But what the opponents of the SAVE Act conveniently leave out is that the bill includes a provision addressing precisely this situation.

The legislation specifically requires states to “establish a process under which an applicant can provide such additional documentation to the appropriate election official of the State as may be necessary to establish that the applicant is a citizen of the United States in the event of a discrepancy with respect to the applicant’s documentary proof of United States citizenship.” For married women, this “additional documentation” could be a marriage license, which explains why her last name has changed.

Even if a woman for some reason can’t use her birth certificate to verify her citizenship, she can use a passport under the SAVE Act. But, Democrats say, many women don’t have passports, and they cost $130 to obtain.

Here Democrats are diving back into the same patronizing talking points they use to claim that state Voter ID laws are “racist.” Just like Democrats and the media have suggested minorities are too stupid or incompetent to figure out how to obtain a photo ID, they now suggest that married women can’t manage to apply for a passport.

The cost argument has more merit, but not much. For starters, individuals can also use a passport card to verify their citizenship status, which costs $65 – not much more than a driver’s license in most states.

Moreover, Congress has direct control over how much passports and passport cards cost. If Democrats were truly concerned about passports being prohibitively expensive, they would be working with Republicans to lower the cost of applying for one instead of throwing up their hands and trying to kill the entire bill.

Democrats and the media recognize that stopping noncitizens from voting is broadly popular with the American public, which is why they are forced to invent a controversy that distracts from the purpose of the bill. This response reveals their true agenda: enabling noncitizen voting.

As always when it comes to the left’s “voting rights” outrage, opposition to the SAVE Act is about advancing a partisan agenda, not voter protection.

Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @ShaneHarris513.