This is my main concern for all people with discrepancies regarding their vital statistics within opaque databases. The SAVE act could adversely affect trans people or people like my son who have no recourse to change a clerical error on the part of SSA after the regime’s restrictive policy changes. I spoke today with the office of the Secretary of State to verify the information they have in our state database and to ask questions about how they plan to secure our electoral processes. I have spoken with the Senators’ offices about ways the SAVE act will create a logistical challenge that many will struggle to overcome due to barriers preventing access to the legal system. I am told we have no recourse but to secure counsel. That becomes an overwhelming task during crisis. We’ve secured ID after being advised to wait until a victory where ACLU fought and won back the right to make changes to identification more easily so there is another window of time for people to apply for passports and real ID. I understand the case is being challenged, but it hasn’t been heard yet.
It’s all very disorienting. At least his documents will match.
I had put off getting a passport for way too long but the SAVE act gave me the impetus I needed to just do it. I’m still worried about my vote but it won’t be because the name on my ID is not the same as my birth certificate.
For decades, conservatives have dressed voter suppression in the language of patriotism. They claim to defend democracy while quietly building barriers to participation. The SAVE Act takes that strategy to its logical extreme, shifting the burden of proof from the state to the citizen, and making voting a privilege you have to earn through paperwork instead of a right guaranteed by citizenship.
And it’s especially insidious toward women. The same cultural norms that pressure women to change their names are now being used against them to strip away their access to the polls. It’s a double bind that reveals how deeply sexism and voter suppression intertwine.
If democracy means anything, it’s that every eligible voice can be heard without fear or obstruction. The SAVE Act moves us in the opposite direction, back toward a time when only the powerful and well-documented got to decide who counts as “American.”
Everyday I want to cry at all of the injustices, especially those directed at women and minorities. Do those voting for this bill have no conscience? How am can any woman support this suppression?
For now I will vote, attend protests, write to my senators and waste of a representative. Big sigh.
Qasim, you are so right! Besides the usual suspects of the repubs' wrath, Blacks, Hispanics, the poor, .... they didn't even think of Western married women, who take their husband's names! Just shows the lack of thought that went into this. I've signed petitions, sent emails to Reps and now I'll call. Damn! I have other things to do in my day, but this idiot trump, fills up my days with trash I have to do!! Damn!! We're all together, and we won't allow him to take down our democracy.
Martha, I think they did put thought into it when they demanded that the names match their birth certificates. They want to take the vote away from as many women as they can.
How silly of me! Catherine, you're right! Vance particularly, has made the point of putting the little ladies back in the place they belong >>> the home, cooking and servicing males, ... not out in the world, doing work, and voting, for heavens sake!!!
The whole objective here is to make elections irrelevant, as they are in our, shall I say, sister-country, Russia. Oh, we hold them but--completely meaningless! hahahahaha
Yes I agree that name change thing is going to be something they'll latch onto no doubt. Besides a million other issues. So everybody check that you are registered and check it again and again like Santa and his list lol. Did you ask your wife why she goes by her 'fathers' name? After all her mother must have had a surname too.
The SAVE Act isn’t about citizenship. It’s about friction. By weaponizing documentation gaps: birth certificates that don’t match married names, Tribal IDs that lack federal stamps, soldiers stationed abroad; it ritualizes exclusion. The behavioral logic is clear: increase the cost of participation until the system feels inaccessible. And when voting becomes a bureaucratic obstacle course, democracy becomes performance.
I also wonder how this would have impacted me and my colleagues when I was a diplomat…
This isn’t just a legal rollback. It’s a strategic erosion of civic trust. The act punishes coherence…the very thing resilient systems depend on. And it does so under the guise of safeguarding elections from a threat that doesn’t exist.
The SAVE Act reveals a deeper truth: when institutions fear participation, they don’t restrict fraud. They restrict access. And the behavioral signal is unmistakable..
See my restack. COVERTURE. women were and ARE PROPERTY. Educate yourselves on history. Not that I’m furious about it or anything.
This is my main concern for all people with discrepancies regarding their vital statistics within opaque databases. The SAVE act could adversely affect trans people or people like my son who have no recourse to change a clerical error on the part of SSA after the regime’s restrictive policy changes. I spoke today with the office of the Secretary of State to verify the information they have in our state database and to ask questions about how they plan to secure our electoral processes. I have spoken with the Senators’ offices about ways the SAVE act will create a logistical challenge that many will struggle to overcome due to barriers preventing access to the legal system. I am told we have no recourse but to secure counsel. That becomes an overwhelming task during crisis. We’ve secured ID after being advised to wait until a victory where ACLU fought and won back the right to make changes to identification more easily so there is another window of time for people to apply for passports and real ID. I understand the case is being challenged, but it hasn’t been heard yet.
It’s all very disorienting. At least his documents will match.
I had put off getting a passport for way too long but the SAVE act gave me the impetus I needed to just do it. I’m still worried about my vote but it won’t be because the name on my ID is not the same as my birth certificate.
I’ve said this before on one of your posts, this is exactly the type of thing reform would bring in for the UK too! Our temu trump wannabe!
For decades, conservatives have dressed voter suppression in the language of patriotism. They claim to defend democracy while quietly building barriers to participation. The SAVE Act takes that strategy to its logical extreme, shifting the burden of proof from the state to the citizen, and making voting a privilege you have to earn through paperwork instead of a right guaranteed by citizenship.
And it’s especially insidious toward women. The same cultural norms that pressure women to change their names are now being used against them to strip away their access to the polls. It’s a double bind that reveals how deeply sexism and voter suppression intertwine.
If democracy means anything, it’s that every eligible voice can be heard without fear or obstruction. The SAVE Act moves us in the opposite direction, back toward a time when only the powerful and well-documented got to decide who counts as “American.”
Everyday I want to cry at all of the injustices, especially those directed at women and minorities. Do those voting for this bill have no conscience? How am can any woman support this suppression?
For now I will vote, attend protests, write to my senators and waste of a representative. Big sigh.
Qasim, you are so right! Besides the usual suspects of the repubs' wrath, Blacks, Hispanics, the poor, .... they didn't even think of Western married women, who take their husband's names! Just shows the lack of thought that went into this. I've signed petitions, sent emails to Reps and now I'll call. Damn! I have other things to do in my day, but this idiot trump, fills up my days with trash I have to do!! Damn!! We're all together, and we won't allow him to take down our democracy.
Martha, I think they did put thought into it when they demanded that the names match their birth certificates. They want to take the vote away from as many women as they can.
How silly of me! Catherine, you're right! Vance particularly, has made the point of putting the little ladies back in the place they belong >>> the home, cooking and servicing males, ... not out in the world, doing work, and voting, for heavens sake!!!
The SAVE act is a misnomer. It doesn’t save anything! It reduces the electorate, and gives more voting power to men. it is basically undemocratic.
I find it interesting to take a deeper look at things we consider norms. Qasim, your wife sounds like a person of reason and logic. ❤️😊
Why should we comply with a law put out by a seditionist? Congress enables the seditionist, so why on earth should ANY state comply?
Thanks for this reminder - but link to "call your senators" is for 5calls assault on free speech.
The whole objective here is to make elections irrelevant, as they are in our, shall I say, sister-country, Russia. Oh, we hold them but--completely meaningless! hahahahaha
Yes I agree that name change thing is going to be something they'll latch onto no doubt. Besides a million other issues. So everybody check that you are registered and check it again and again like Santa and his list lol. Did you ask your wife why she goes by her 'fathers' name? After all her mother must have had a surname too.
The SAVE Act isn’t about citizenship. It’s about friction. By weaponizing documentation gaps: birth certificates that don’t match married names, Tribal IDs that lack federal stamps, soldiers stationed abroad; it ritualizes exclusion. The behavioral logic is clear: increase the cost of participation until the system feels inaccessible. And when voting becomes a bureaucratic obstacle course, democracy becomes performance.
I also wonder how this would have impacted me and my colleagues when I was a diplomat…
This isn’t just a legal rollback. It’s a strategic erosion of civic trust. The act punishes coherence…the very thing resilient systems depend on. And it does so under the guise of safeguarding elections from a threat that doesn’t exist.
The SAVE Act reveals a deeper truth: when institutions fear participation, they don’t restrict fraud. They restrict access. And the behavioral signal is unmistakable..
governance by gatekeeping, not inclusion.
—Johan
Couldn’t have said it better!
Your last two paragraphs are so important!