Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla told MS NOW host Ali Velshi on Sunday that married women would be unable to prove they could vote if the SAVE Act were enacted.
The House of Representatives passed the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and photo ID for voting, on Wednesday by a 216-213 vote, sending it to the Senate, where it faces a tough road for passage due to united Democratic opposition. Velshi and Padilla claimed the legislation’s purpose was “discouraging people from voting.”
“What about this nonsense about providing citizenship proof every time you vote, right? You guys do audit the voter rolls. So the point is, you know who’s on it, you make adjustments, you audit, you throw people off and you put extra people on,” Velshi claimed. “This is not a thing. I mean, I literally talk about discouraging people from voting, women who’ve changed their names that don’t match their birth certificate, their marriage name — married name doesn’t match their birth certificate, their license doesn’t match their birth certificate. This is nonsensical.”
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“Right, absolutely nonsensical. I mean, to insist on bringing your birth certificate or — or a passport, most — most, a lot of Americans don’t even have a passport because not everybody travels internationally,” Padilla claimed. “It’s the equivalent of a show me your papers law to be able to exercise your fundamental constitutional right to vote. And who would be impacted? You know, the SAVE Act may sound good in some quarters. You know, one big example is what you just said, a woman who may choose to change her name when she gets married. All of a sudden her birth certificate name is different than her ID. And that becomes a problem. It’s never been a problem. It isn’t a problem.”
Despite opponents’ claims that black voters would be disenfranchised, CNN data reporter Harry Enten noted the high support for voter ID requirements among black voters and Democrats, with at least 70% of both subsets of the general population backing the proposal, during a Feb. 3 appearance on “CNN News Central.”
In the 2024 election, Trump received 52% of the votes from married women according to CNN’s exit polls.
“What about people who live in rural areas have to make their way to a county courthouse to verify their registration. When you’re already working probably more than 18 hours a day just to make ends meet, it’s not just an inconvenience,” Padila claimed. “Members of the military when they’re deployed and they change from one base to another, have to go through hoops to update their registration, to exercise their right to vote when they’re — when they should be focusing on their core missions and our national security. Again, the SAVE Act is a solution in search of a problem.”
“The only thing that’s saved is Republican chances of holding onto power. That’s how desperate they are,” Padilla continued.
Fifty Republican senators have announced their support for the legislation, including moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, but every Democrat, including Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has come out in opposition.
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