Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. FRIEDMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Morelle for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this so-called SAVE Act, a bill that is a modern-day poll tax targeting American women and low- income Americans.

This bill bans voter ID. It bans using driver's licenses as a voter ID unless they are backed by additional proof of citizenship, a requirement that excludes nearly all driver's licenses and REAL IDs issued today.

For women who have changed their names, often through marriage, this means showing a passport or a birth certificate that may not match their legal name. That would have meant that my grandmother, who had long since lost her birth certificate, would have been ineligible to vote under this bill.

In California alone, that would include more than 7 million women. This would force those women to pay $130 just to get the passport they need to vote. With nearly a third of Californians lacking passports, this bill would cost them more than $1.25 billion statewide.

If you have to pay to vote, that is called a poll tax, plain and simple. It is also unnecessary red tape for people just trying to cast a ballot.

This is a bill in search of a problem. We have enough trouble getting American citizens to vote.

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