This past week the House voted to pass the “SAVE Act,” theoretically to prevent non-citizens from voting, which they are already prohibited from doing. For some unknown reason, four Democrats actually voted for the bill. This bill will make it harder for 69-70 million married women to prove their citizenship since they took their husband’s names when they married.
And for many of us, who had a spelling error on our birth certificates, changing the error is a nightmare. I finally gave up but fortunately have a passport with the correct spelling of the name I have used since I married back in the dark ages.
It’s not supposed to affect people already registered but over 8 million persons move from one state to another in any given year, and millions more change the towns where they live, which means they need to re-register in their new towns in order to vote. This bill will disproportionately hamper women from registering to vote. No question about that. But that’s what the misogynists want – fewer women voting.
Prayer for the Day
Seeking your Presence in our lives today,
We need new directions for our lives today;
Hold us fast, Holy One, so may experience your love,
Broadening our vision of the call you have given us.
Enlarge the boundaries of our thought and imagination,
Confronting us with love's demand for justice and mercy.
In the name of the One who lived for others,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The bill would also direct states to purge their voter rolls based on faulty data and without appropriate guardrails, like requiring officials to notify voters before removing them from the list. In 2024 alone, we saw these kinds of reckless purge attempts sweep in thousands of eligible American citizens in Alabama, Ohio, Virginia, and Texas.
Brennan Center for Justice statement on SAVE Act
These are people in our community who are running elections, often as volunteers. The idea that we would be threatening these people with jail time because the federal government failed to do what they were supposed to do, which is provide clarity in this law ... it is so egregious.
Celine Stewart, President League of Women Voters
They stoop, they crouch, and the helpless fall by their might.
They think in their heart, “God has forgotten, God’s face is hidden,
And will never see it.”
Psalm 10: 10-11