Back to Suffragette City
This week the House is planning to vote on a bill that would prevent women and trans people from voting in future elections. It’s not the first time. This happened in 2024 as well, but it thankfully stalled in the Senate. Part of the Save Act includes a requirement for a voter’s birth certificate to match their current legal name. There’s a lot to unpack here because your name isn’t the only thing that will be under the microscope if this act goes into effect. There’s also the likelihood that if the bill passes, voters will be required to show a passport, birth certificate, or naturalizations papers, and, according to SPLC.org,” For most Americans, a state-issued driver’s license — including REAL ID — would not satisfy the requirements of the SAVE Act, as the vast majority of these IDs do not indicate citizenship status.”
As it stands right now, there are plenty of people who go to the polls and drive away after seeing the long lines. Or they’re trying to vote on a lunch break, before school pick up, between baseball practices, and have a limited amount of time. The very real concern here is how many people will go through the entire process of providing this newly proposed paperwork to be able to vote in the first place? It’s not as if we don’t already have guidelines in place for who is allowed to vote. Every state insists that a voter verifies their citizenship when registering and voting. So why all this extra red tape? Voter suppression. We the people can be a lazy bunch. Throw in a couple of extra hoops to jump through and it’s more likely we’ll give up.
Zoom out and look at the big picture, women just earned the right to vote in 1920. 105 years and everything the suffragettes marched and fought for may disappear. I wonder what Sojourner Truth would say if she was still alive to see this. What would Frederick Douglas, Susan B. Anthony or Wilhelmina Kekelaokalaninui Widemann Dowsett think when they heard that our current administration was going to make voter’s right a challenge and possibly a thing of the past?
Think back to your own past: voting on your favorite animal or snack in kindergarten, voting for student council in high school, or maybe you voted very recently when tipping at your favorite coffee place. Now, imagine explaining that to a child. They can practice voting in school but may not be able to vote in the real world when they’re of age. If reading about this makes you mad (it should), here are some ways to take action!
Contact your representatives and senators, tell them to vote NO on this bill. (https://act.splcenter.org/page/79316/action/1?ea.tracking.id=r3f98suv)
Go to a Congress members’ town hall, or their district office and ask if they’re supporting the SAVE Act.
Share steps 1 and 2 and encourage your friends and family to reach out and make their voice heard.
Keep an eye on progress. I’m not encouraging you to doom scroll or watch the news non-stop, but you can check here and see how this moves along.
And let’s be real: I know it’s easy to read those steps and feel fired up and then get distracted or busy and forget. So do it now, before you watch another episode of White Lotus or another TikTok. That next chapter of your book can wait, I promise. Don’t text your friend back until you’ve done this! Make a call, send an email, reach out in any way you can. Or we may not see each other at the polls next time.
