The big dis
Republicans are excited about disenfranchising women.
Republicans in the House of Representatives blocked an amendment to the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act which would protect married women’s ability to register to vote.
…
The SAVE Act has come under intense scrutiny for how it would require US citizens to register to vote in person with their ID and a birth certificate, passport, or other ID that proves citizenship—something that is difficult for the 69 million married women whose current legal last name does not match their birth certificate.
Republicans have said the SAVE Act is necessary to prevent noncitizen voting. However, recent audits of voter rolls have found instances of noncitizen voting to be “vanishingly rare.”
Vanishingly rare, whatever, let’s disenfranchise women anyway.
When discussing her amendment on married women on the House floor, Rep. Dexter said: “If this amendment fails, we are putting 70 million American women at risk of disenfranchisement. 70 million. That’s one in four voters in this country.”
Rep Dexter added: “I cannot believe, in the year 2025, I have to stand here on the House floor of the United States to defend a woman’s right to vote. But I will.”
She asked her Republican colleagues to “show courage in this moment” to vote on her “common sense amendment.”
But of course they didn’t.
I’ve already encountered this problem. When I tried to get an ID in Maine, I was unable to because I could not get a copy of the court order changing my legal name back to the one I was born with. They shouldn’t need that, since that is on my birth certificate, my first married name is on my marriage certificate, and my current name is on my second marriage certificate. But apparently they are required to throw as many obstacles in our way as possible. If this persists, I will change my name back to the name on my birth certificate, but since they were telling me I needed proof of every name I ever lived under, that might not work, either.
They also told me that in the near future I would need a Real ID (the one I was trying to get) to board a plane, get a passport, or anything else like that. I let my passport expire several years ago; why do I suspect it will be a lot more difficult to get now?