(Source: MIRS.news, Published 02/27/2025) With the U.S. House teeing up legislation mandating that only U.S. citizens have the right to vote, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson led a press conference laying out how the bill, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, is a politically driven policy that will cause many more headaches for states and voters than its worth.
The legislation requires people to use source documents like passports or birth certificates in order to register to vote, but allows states to require other evidence to demonstrate U.S. citizenship. The motivation is to prevent non-citizens from registering to vote in federal elections.
Benson – flanked by Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), Rep. Stephen Wooden (D-Grand Rapids), Melanie Macey from Promote the Vote and Kyle Zawacki, from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – mentioned concerns nationally that married women who change their names will be forced to run down their marriage certificate, if a state allows for it, to demonstrate that they are a United States citizen.
“The bill comes with . . . additional onerous requirements that states must comply with," she said. “And it's not necessary.”
Benson said instances in which foreign nationals participate in elections are so rare that they can be snuffed out using different means. Moss, the chair of the Senate elections committee, agreed.
“Policies like these are like taking a chainsaw to our democracy,” Moss said. “As someone who has used a chainsaw in the past, I know this for a fact. It may get the job done, but it's going to cause a lot of damage in the process.”
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