Eliminating The Right To Vote

The SAVE Act

The plan is to keep the poor, people of color, and women from voting.

Millions are about to be disenfranchised from voting. According to the Brennen Center this includes 20 million people who are currently voting legally. Among those being stripped of their rights are married women.

"If it became law, the SAVE Act would require Americans to provide a birth certificate, passport, or other citizenship document to register or re-register to vote. A Brennan Center study previously showed that more than 21 million American citizens do not have easy access to these documents. An extension of our previous analysis shows that most of them are Americans who are actively engaged voters. What’s more, the SAVE Act would impact millions more voters who do have access to citizenship documents but register using popular methods, such as online and mail registration, that would be undermined by the bill."
What Are the Implications?

According to the League of Women Voters,

• "This legislation would drastically change the way all citizens register to vote.

• Every time a person registers to vote or updates their registration (from a move, marriage, etc), they would need to show a passport or birth certificate in person.

However:

• 146 million American citizens do not have a valid passport (for context, 153 million Americans voted in the 2024 presidential election).

• In seven states, less than one-third of citizens have a valid passport.

• Lower income Americans would be dramatically affected: only 1 in 5 Americans with income below $50,000 have a valid passport.

• 83% of women change their last name when they marry: 69 million American women may not have a birth certificate with their legal name on it and would not be able to use their birth certificate to prove citizenship. The SAVE Act does not included proof of name change or marriage certificate as acceptable proof of identity.

• The SAVE Act would make it impossible for a voter to mail in a registration application. And it would eliminate the League's ability to conduct voter registration drives."

The bill is currently being fast tracked by Republicans in Congress. Republicans would have us believe that millions of undocumented immigrants voted in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024. They say fraud is rampant. The system is rigged against them. If the system is rigged, why did Trump win again in 2024. Why do Republicans control the House and the Senate.

A study about voting fraud in swing states in 2020 found almost no fraud. According to NPR, after the 2020 election, The Associated Press contacted local election officials in six swing states. In their analysis, they found 475 potential voter fraud cases — which amounts to an extraordinarily small percentage of the more than 25 million ballots that were cast in those six states.

States have systems to prevent someone from voting illegally

Why is there so little voter fraud? The report from NPR says it is because of guardrails put up by the states.

Lastly, states have a series of mechanisms to help weed out people who are ineligible to vote before they could cast a ballot.

States, by law, are required to routinely remove ineligible or deceased voters from their rolls. And there are tools like the Electronic Registration Information Center, also known as ERIC, that help states share voter data.

The SAVE act is overreach based on faulty  (When I say faulty, I'm understating the motivation) reasoning in an effort to keep people who might not vote Republican from the polls.

You can do something now. you may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Leave a message with your representative. Don't wait for anybody else. Let them know what you're thinking.

Is It Something I Said?

Certain words will get your life's work banned

Researchers, scientist, sociologist, universities, medical research centers, government agencies, and non-profits are all getting their funding pulled because they are running afoul of the administration's  anti-woke, anti-DEI campaign. Certain words and phrases raise flags, alarms among the elites that run Trump World.

Get Rhythm 

I like this song. It didn't happen right away. The accordion was kind off putting but it grew on me. When I finally saw the video it all fell into place, and I liked it even more. With each view of the video, more and more was revealed. I like the diversity, equality and inclusion it represents. There's also a sense of belonging and the discovery of common ground. And today, mentioning this might get any of us into trouble. I'm not even sure it's okay to share the video.

There are certain thoughts and ideas that will get you flagged and threatened in America today.

Banned Words

Yes, it is absurd, but it's also dangerous. This is what authoritarian governments do. They narrow ideology to a specific way of thinking while demonizing freedom of thought and freedom of expression. Anybody who is determined not to be part of their norm is isolated and made irrelevant, even forced into extinction.

Our country is founded on God given rights. What does that mean? The Supreme Court says, The Founders believed that God-given rights precede human law, and they designed their government to secure those rights. The Bible teaches that man has freedom of speech because God did not give the civil government jurisdiction over the mind of man. The Declaration of Independence emphasizes life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is based on the idea that these are rights given by God. The Constitution's First Amendment grants your rights to freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

What we are getting instead is Fascism

The characteristics in common among fascists include extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people’s community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation. (Britannica)