Select an issue concerning voting rights or practices and tell us your thoughts about it.
Originally, I wanted to write about how Election Day should be a national holiday to make voting more accessible. But after learning about the SAVE Act in early April, I felt compelled to speak about something more urgent—an attack on the very right to vote itself.
The SAVE Act, which is introduced by Texas Rep. Chip Roy, claims to make our elections safe by requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship—e.g., passport or birth certificate—to vote. On the surface, that doesn’t sound unreasonable, but the more I read about it, the more I realized how dangerous and discriminatory this bill truly is. It’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, so why introduce a bill like this in the first place? There’s no evidence of widespread violations, which makes this feel like a solution in search of a problem that could end up disenfranchising millions of eligible voters.
I think about the people in my community, especially seniors, working families, and first-generation Americans like my parents. Most of them do not have passports or easy access to their birth certificates. The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that 15 to 18 million American adults lack a birth certificate or other documents needed to prove citizenship. According to the State Department, only about 169 million Americans have passports (taking into account that some of those passport holders are minors), meaning just over half the population holds one. That is not a small oversight; it is a major barrier.
One that could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters who already face enough challenges when trying to participate in our democracy.
I care deeply about democracy because I’ve seen what it means when people are excluded. My parents came to the U.S. facing language barriers and discrimination, but they always made it clear that voting matters. For them and for me, casting a ballot is more than a right. It’s a way to be recognized, to have a voice, and to help shape a future that doesn’t leave us behind.
The SAVE Act jeopardizes that future. It sustains the bogus myth that our elections are plagued by fraud, when actually voter fraud is extremely rare. Instead of protecting democracy, it undermines confidence and makes it harder for people to vote. I want to live in a country that encourages voting, rather than forbids it. In a democracy, the very worst thing we can do is pretend to defend it while dismantling it from the inside out.
