How the SAVE Act Will Keep Women From Voting
And how to ensure it won't impact YOU (Scroll to the end to listen)
Today I want to amplify another Substacker’s newsletter regarding the SAVE Act. put together this stellar explainer to help American women grasp how it imperils our right to vote.
She includes non-confrontational icebreakers that educate and inform, regardless of one’s politics. I highly recommend reading and sharing this newsletter with every female American voter you know.
For readers unfamiliar with the SAVE ACT, it requires Americans to present a birth certificate or passport THAT MATCHES THEIR LEGAL NAME when they register to vote.
Why does this matter? Because the majority of American women change their names when they marry. Their legal names do not match the name on their birth certificate.
Just over one half of Americans have a passport, and these numbers fall in Communities of Color, which would impact the ability of Women of Color to vote. The SAVE ACT could lead to a significant percentage of American women needing to obtain some new documentation to protect their right to vote.
For those who did not follow my November instructions and obtain copies of your birth certificates, HERE IS A LINK TO ORDER COPIES. It contains information on how to obtain one’s birth certificate by state.
Note: You will need to order copies of your birth certificate from the state where you were born, not the state in which you now live.
You ask: But why do I need to order copies of my birth certificate? They haven’t passed the SAVE ACT.
Answer: Because if Congress passes the SAVE Act, the President will sign it. It could become extremely difficult to obtain these records once they are required, which is another way to discourage targeted groups from registering to vote.
According to Pew Research Center, 80% of American women take their husband’s last name when they marry. The SAVE Act could cause up to 80% of American women to be ineligible to vote, forcing them to take onerous steps to recapture their unquestionable right to vote (unquestionable until the President issues an Executive Order nullifying the 19th Amendment, like he has attempted for the 14th).
If the SAVE Act passes and I don’t have a passport, I will have to present a copy of my birth certificate to register to vote. Luckily, it matches my legal name. For up to 80% of married American women, it won’t. If you’re like me and didn’t change your legal name when you married, you should still order copies of your birth certificate.
What can American women do if their legal name doesn’t match their birth certificate?
Women who changed their legal names upon marriage by taking their husband’s last name will only have three options, and one may not be honored by many government agencies.
Get a US passport. This is the cheapest of the options. HERE’S a link to the State Department website with instructions for obtaining a passport. I provided numerous tips and instructions for obtaining a US Passport in this newsletter:
As of today, American women who have changed their names upon marriage can get a passport with their legal married name. The SAVE Act allows one to submit a valid passport to register to vote. Therefore, having a valid US passport will satisfy this onerous requirement.
Note: Applicants will be required to submit a copy of their birth certificate with a first-time passport application. Make sure you have official birth certificate copies before applying for a US passport.
According to the website Alias Flip, the SSA allows users multiple name corrections in their lifetimes. For example, if a woman took her husband’s name when she married and changed it with the SSA, she can simply provide a copy of her marriage license, another form of ID, and a name correction form to change it back to her maiden name.
This process may allow women to change their names on credit cards and similar, but Alias Flip warns that other government entities may not honor this change request. For example, it may be difficult to change one’s driver’s license or passport using an amended SSA card.
Still, this inexpensive process may be worth a try before going the only other available route: Petitioning a court to change one’s legal name back to her maiden name.
Petitioning a court to change one’s legal name back to her maiden name.
While most states allow women to easily change their names when they marry or divorce, changing one’s name for any other reason is more complicated, time-consuming, and costly.
Most states require a court appearance to provide reasons for the requested name change. The judge will decide whether those reasons are acceptable. (How many readers think Republican judges will deem I want my legal name to match my birth certificate so I can register to vote an acceptable reason?)
My advice to women who are getting married imminently or plan to marry someday? DO NOT CHANGE YOUR LEGAL NAME. KEEP YOUR MAIDEN NAME. IT IS YOUR NAME.
I know. I know. I heard so many opinions when I chose to keep my maiden name upon marriage.
My mother: “But people will think you aren’t really married and are living in sin if you don’t take your husband’s name!”
Various friends: “But don’t you want your name to match your children’s names?” (Where is the rule that children must take dad’s name?)
Several elderly aunts: “I am sending this letter/note/card to Mrs. Your Husband’s Name, because women should take their husband’s name when they marry.” (After several very charged confrontations, they stopped this passive aggressive behavior. Sigh.)
One family member even changed my name to my husband’s name on a seating chart. I spent untold minutes looking for my name and didn’t get to my seat until the main course was being served.
American society - both women and men - try to enforce these unwritten rules for female name-changing upon marriage. IGNORE THEM, LADIES. KEEP YOUR MAIDEN NAME UPON MARRIAGE. AGAIN, IT IS YOUR NAME.
I would not have married my husband if he insisted upon my taking his name. I already had loads of experience with this kind of controlling, demeaning behavior. It makes a very loud statement about how this man views you: As property; as subservient to him; as someone whose identity doesn’t matter as much as his does.
Don’t marry anyone who doesn’t value YOU. YOUR NAME is part of YOU.
According to the Center for American Progress, the SAVE Act would also make it virtually impossible to register to vote by mail, register to vote online, and halt all voter registration drives. If it is passed and signed into law, millions of Americans of all genders would be disenfranchised.
The ACLU has an excellent form letter to send to your House Representative and Senators, but we have learned CALLING THEM is much more effective.
Use the ACLU form letter as a script when you call.
CLICK HERE for the form letter (at the right of the page.)
And CLICK HERE to use 5calls.org to make your daily calls.
Please share this newsletter with everyone you know.
Corporate media IS NOT telling Americans the truth about what’s happening. By sharing this newsletter, you are helping more Americans grasp what’s at stake: The imminent loss of our democracy if we fail to collectively raise our voices and stop it. Call your representatives and demand that they kill the SAVE Act.
Please share.VoteRiders is one of my fave orgs to support.Services are free!
Voter ID Assistance
VoteRiders works directly with voters, both virtually and in-person, to ensure they have the ID they need to cast a ballot that counts. We provide personalized assistance for voters, including:
Covering the cost of required documents (like birth certificates or Social Security cards) and ID
Arranging and paying for transportation to their local ID-issuing office
Answering questions about their state’s voter ID laws
Providing pro bono legal assistance with certain document issues
We receive referrals from partner organizations who share information about our services through their networks, and also receive self-referrals from voters who find us through social media, internet searches and other means. We work one-on-one with these voters to assist them with their documents and IDs.
https://www.voteriders.org/about/
This will make it very hard for seniors and others who were born at home in a poor area and didn’t get a birth certificate. Poor folks of all kinds were born at home with midwives and have no official record. This will be really true for many folks in the South. Black people in great numbers along with poor people in general. All economically stable and secure folks had doctors and birth certificates.