FactCheck.org: Will SAVE Act Prevent Married Women from Registering to Vote?
By Hadleigh Zinsner
Q: Is it true that under the SAVE Act married women will not be able to register to vote if their married name doesn’t match their birth certificate?
A: The proposed SAVE Act instructs states to establish a process for people whose legal name doesn’t match their birth certificate to provide additional documents. But voting rights advocates say that married women and others who have changed their names may face difficulty when registering because of the ambiguity in the bill over what documents may be accepted.
FULL ANSWER
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On Jan. 3, Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas reintroduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, a bill aimed at preventing voting by noncitizens. The SAVE Act would require that individuals registering to vote show “documentary proof of United States citizenship,” including when they re-register after moving to a new state.
In recent weeks, many readers have asked us about the impact of the legislation, particularly whether women who changed their last names when they married would be able to register to vote, a concern that has been highlighted in social media posts.
According to the bill, valid forms of documentary proof include a U.S. passport; a REAL ID-compliant ID that indicates U.S. citizenship, such as an enhanced driver’s license, which is available in a few states; a government-issued photo ID showing the U.S. as the applicant’s birthplace, such as a passport card; and a U.S. military ID if shown alongside a military record of service showing the U.S. as the applicant’s birthplace.
Applicants may also present other government-issued photo IDs if they are shown alongside a certified birth certificate, a record of birth from a U.S. hospital, adoption records, a consular birth report, a naturalization certificate or an American Indian card with the classification “KIC,” designating U.S. citizenship for Mexican-born members of the Kickapoo tribes of Texas and Oklahoma.
Read the full article at FactCheck.org.
February 28, 2025.
