Why so many are blasting the SAVE America Act as voter suppression

The U.S House of Representatives voted last week to pass the so-called Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which would require all voters to show proof of their citizenship at the polls.

- By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

Political organizers say that move could potentially disenfranchise millions of Black and Brown voters, married women, youth, seniors, rural voters, and transgender voters if it becomes law.

This bill at its core would require voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, and photo identification that proves citizenship to vote in federal elections — even though only U.S. citizens can legally register and vote, with an existing penalty for fraud already in place.

“The SAVE America Act is not about protecting our elections — it's about disguising voter suppression techniques aimed at disenfranchising Black voters as election security,” said Legal Defense Fund Director of Policy Demetria McCain in a statement.

“It is disingenuous, it is discriminatory, and it is all based on a continuously disproven narrative of voter fraud propagated by an administration concerned not with voter protections but solely with the fear of letting people select their own leaders.”

The concept of a voter ID bill is hardly new in this country's history. The 24th Amendment was specifically added to the U.S. Constitution to eliminate poll taxes in 1964. Before that, poll taxes were imposed on Black voters by white supremacists angry about the passage of the 15th Amendment, which banned voting discrimination based on race. They used literacy tests, poll taxes, arbitrary voter ID rules, violence, unwarranted arrests, and intimidation to disqualify Black voters at the polls. The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) was a landmark federal law designed to enforce the 15th and 24th Amendments.