The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act is currently being considered in the U.S. Congress.
Bill sponsors state that the SAVE Act aims to prevent voter fraud by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. But how often does voter fraud actually occur?
According to the Alaska Division of Elections, a minuscule number of noncitizens have attempted to vote in Alaska elections in the last few decades. Does Alaska need the SAVE Act, which would create roadblocks to registering to vote and changing voter registration? No. Isolated instances of fraud do not constitute a widespread trend.
Beyond the issue of whether the SAVE Act is necessary to stop voter fraud, the act will make it significantly more burdensome for thousands of eligible Alaska voters to register to vote. The act requires a person registering to vote to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. How do you prove citizenship? You can use your passport, if you have one, since you must have your birth certificate to apply for a passport.
The SAVE Act allows other types of identification to prove your citizenship. Your driver’s license, your military ID, state ID, tribal ID, real ID, all may be used provided they have both your photo, and the ID states you were born in the United States. There are only five states that show citizenship on driver’s licenses, and most of the other forms do not indicate citizenship.
If your ID does not state that you were born in the United States, and Alaska-issued IDs don’t, the SAVE Act requires a certified copy of your birth certificate to prove your citizenship. Do you have a copy of your birth certificate? Is it certified? In Alaska, it costs $30 and takes at least eight weeks to get a copy of a certified birth certificate. Other states have equally long wait times. Do you have enough time to wait for the certificate to arrive so you can register in time for the election?
The SAVE Act requires that a person personally appear before the voter registrar with their proof of citizenship documents. Only six cities in Alaska have official Election offices — Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Nome, Wasilla and Kenai. Due to low staffing, the registration offices have reduced hours and long wait times. For Alaskans outside of these six cities, complying with the SAVE Act will require a long drive, an airplane trip, or a ferry ride.
If Alaska’s PFD, motor vehicle registration, or online registration survive the passage of the SAVE Act, citizens who register remotely would still have to present the required documentation in person before the application to register would be validated.
Is your present name the same one as the one on your birth certificate? If your birth name and the name on your present ID do not match, you will not be allowed to register to vote, unless you produce additional documents. People who have changed their birth name through marriage, adoption or other legal procedures will be affected.
What if you move to a new voting district and need to re-register at your new address? What if you want to change your party affiliation? What if your citizenship documents were lost or destroyed by fire, flood, wind, earthquake or some other disaster? The SAVE Act requires that you start over, get another certified copy of your birth certificate, get a new ID, go back to the voter registration office in person, and prove your citizenship, again. What if you are naturalized, legal U.S. citizen or any other Alaskan who does not have a U.S. birth certificate?
The primary effect of the SAVE Act will be to discourage voting.
Let our congressional delegation know that the SAVE Act is not needed, will disenfranchise many eligible Alaska voters and will make the process of voting in the United States much more restrictive.
Cathleen Rolph is the president of the League of Women Voters of the Kenai Peninsula. This opinion piece is submitted on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Alaska.
