Women voting: Is that the problem?

By JoAnne Young

I am one of those women who took on the name of my husband when I got married. Young seemed like an easier name to spell than my maiden name, for all the times I would have to spell it at my job, in making reservations and giving my name to someone who doesn’t know me. It happens daily. It might also make it less complicated, I figured, for my last name to match the last names of our kids. 

 

Then along comes the Save America Act, that unneeded bill that Republicans believe will somehow make sure they stay in power, by making it difficult for women who changed their names when they married, for older citizens, students and lower income people to register to vote. 

 

Women are registered to vote and have actually voted at higher rates than men for decades. Is that the problem?

 

Gloria Steinem says: “The voting booth is still the only place that a pauper equals a billionaire and any woman equals any man.” Is that the problem?

 

The Save America bill would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot. Opponents of the bill argue it could make millions of American citizens ineligible to vote in federal elections.

 

The House has already passed the bill. The Senate will vote on it this coming week. So far, we are hearing that the bill doesn’t have enough votes to pass, unless some rules are changed that would require a simple 50-vote majority. But any number of alterations could be applied to the bill or the process to give it an opportunity to pass. In the past few years, it has become all to clear that you have to expect the unexpected. 

 

The Save America act is a version of last year’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which passed the U.S. House but was not voted on in the Senate. The new version passed the House of Representatives in February. Here’s what is in it: 

 

-- A person registering to vote or changing any element of their voter registration, name, address, party affiliation, would have to do it in person and provide a hard copy of a birth certificate or passport. Drivers licenses, military or tribal IDs, or Social Security numbers, would not be enough. It is unknown what the process would include if, for example, the last name on a woman’s birth certificate or passport does not match her current name. It is believed that voter registration drives would be all but eliminated.

-- The act would demand that states conduct ongoing purges of voter rolls, even though opponents believe the processes to do so are faulty and insufficient, and registrations of eligible voters could be wrongfully cancelled. States would not be required to notify voters before they are removed from these rolls. 

 

Last year, anticipating this bill had a chance of passing, despite people assuring me it wouldn’t, I renewed my passport, making sure my maiden name was as prominently displayed as my married name. I hope that will be enough. 

 

My fear if this passes is that some women and young voters and people of color will be discouraged enough with the hassle of it all and just won’t bother, won’t vote. It’s hard enough to get some people to vote, even without this. I plan to make myself available to get people registered and to the polls, if Republicans who are supporting this don’t make it nearly impossible. It is believed that many eligible voters don’t have access to the documents that prove citizenship. 

 

I don’t understand why so many women in the House said yes to what I have come to believe is a voter suppression act. Thirty-two women, all Republicans, voted yes on the bill. Some of them said they believe voter ID is necessary to ensure only American citizens can vote, even though states have strong voting protection processes in place; many have voter ID requirements. This, of course, is more than a voter ID bill. It was an opportunity for one representative, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, to falsely accuse Democrats in the House of depending “on illegal votes from non-citizens to hold onto power and are willing to compromise election integrity to do it.” She can’t really believe that, can she? 

 

Civic Nebraska testified on a bill in the Nebraska Legislature in February, that would put stricter processes in place to verify voter registration, saying that The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, analyzed elections from 1982 to 2025 in each state looking for instances of fraud committed by non-citizens and found zero instances in Nebraska. 

 

The Save America Act could impact so many eligible voters: rural voters, older Nebraskans, students, naturalized citizens and those who have changed their names. Civic Nebraska recommends that everyone update their voter registration in case this passes and before it would go into effect. Locate these documents: passports, certified birth records, naturalization records, and any paperwork that indicates a name change and connects your current legal name to your citizenship documents. 

 

Then of course, when the time comes, please vote.