April 11th, 2025

Linn Dems Chair Ben Watts letter to Sen. Merkley:
Firmly oppose and filibuster 'SAVE Act'

April 10, 2025
Dear Senator Merkley,
  On behalf of the Linn County Democratic Central Committee, as a firm believer in the foundational right to vote, and as a proponent for Oregon’s safe and secure mail-in voting system, I urge you to oppose and filibuster the so-called "Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act" (SAVE Act), which recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives. While this bill claims to protect election integrity, in reality it creates unnecessary and harmful barriers to voter registration, particularly for marginalized Americans.
  The SAVE Act mandates that all voters provide specific documentation proving their U.S. citizenship to register for federal elections. On paper, that may sound reasonable. But in practice, the bill’s specific requirements will create an onerous barrier to voting, particularly for naturalized citizens, the elderly, the poor, and rural voters who may not have access or the means to obtain the limited forms of documentation the bill demands. Many Americans, including those born in rural hospitals or abroad to U.S. citizens, simply don’t have easy access to the kind of “perfect paperwork” this law would require. No one should be denied their vote because they lack a passport or a specific version of a birth certificate.
  Equally troubling is the bill’s language allowing states to purge voter rolls based on vague or unverifiable claims of non-citizenship, which may rely on flawed or inconsistent processes or data.  The bill allows voter purges “based on documentary proof or verified information that the registrant is not a United States citizen” (Section 2 f) but does not make clear what may qualify to meet this burden of proof. This opens the door to mistaken removals, politically motivated purges, and, as a result, mass disenfranchisement. Our election systems must protect the integrity of the vote without excluding eligible Americans, and I believe that both of these goals are achievable. Safeguards already exist to penalize illegal voting, and current systems have proven effective in identifying the exceedingly rare cases when this occurs.  Therefore, the red tape this bill establishes serves mainly to create barriers for those who are constitutionally guaranteed the right to participate.
  I’m especially concerned about the impact this legislation will have on women, particularly women who have changed their names due to marriage or other circumstances. This bill makes no allowance for this sort of common name discrepancy across documents. A woman whose birth certificate is in her maiden name and whose ID is in her married name could be denied registration unless she jumps through extra hoops to prove her identity. This bill risks disenfranchising countless women.  This oversight was identified during the bill’s consideration in the US House of Representatives. Amendments were proposed to correct for this oversight, but it was intentionally left unaddressed prior to the bill’s passage.
  Voting is a right, not a privilege reserved for those who have the time and resources to successfully navigate bureaucratic red tape. I call on you to stand up for democracy and oppose the SAVE Act if it comes to a vote in the Senate. Our democracy depends on an inclusive, accessible system where every eligible citizen can make their voice heard.
  Thank you for your continuing work protecting and expanding voting access.
  Sincerely,
  Ben Watts
  Chair, Linn County Democrats

---