Will the SAVE Act Protect the Integrity of Voting or Make Registration Too Difficult? Northeastern Experts Explain
Some people also do not have access to their birth certificates, Chong adds. For example, many older Americans, especially in the South, were born at home, so they might not have a birth certificate readily available to them.
Getting a birth certificate, or any government paperwork, can be arduous, adds Alexandra “Xander” Meise, an associate teaching professor at Northeastern’s School of Law. It requires time (including being available at the hours government offices are open), access to transportation to get to these offices, and money to pay for documents. Each state also has different laws around accessing records.
“You may not have gone through the process (of getting a new birth certificate or passport) … for assorted reasons,” Meise says. “It costs money that you don’t have. There’s an administrative process that may be difficult. Or maybe you have to travel to an office to request it. The logistical difficulties in this, plus the cost difficulties, have the potential to affect a significant number of voters.”
While utilizing a birth certificate is also an option, some have raised concerns about how this will impact people who have changed their names, including those who are transgender or people who may have changed their name when they got married. Their names would not match what is on their birth certificate unless those were updated. Up to 69 million women have taken their spouse’s name and would be affected by this potential shift.
“The proposed changes may not sound like a very big deal, but they are potentially a big deal,” adds Meise. “This kind of legislation … requires individuals to be able to plan ahead for registering to vote. … Do they have the correct documentation? Where is the registration office? How can they get to that office? Time and money are finite and people need to make individual choices as to how they spend their resources. Some people have more flexibility with those choices than others. Instituting voter registration requirements that increase the time and money burdens of registration, especially if you do not own the necessary citizenship documents already, can make the path to voter registration longer, and some people will not be able to complete that longer journey.”
Additionally, the act would make it so applicants must present their documents in person to their local election office, which could pose hurdles with people when it comes to time and transportation, particularly in rural communities where election offices may be spread out, says Chong.
“This creates a downstream effect,” she says. “Many Americans take for granted demonstrating that they’re citizens, but being questioned and asking for proof of citizenship creates a lot of intimidation.”
Costas Panagopoulos, distinguished professor of political science at Northeastern, says the legislation could present difficulties for the elderly.
“Older people quite frequently move in with family members,” Panagopoulos says. “They go to assisted living facilities or other places, and they may need to change their voter registration. But it is not easy for them to show up in person to do so. For rural voters, they may have to travel further distances to obtain this documentation and to visit election offices. All of those things become burdens that disproportionately affect people who have greater challenges.”
The SAVE Act intends to make it more difficult for non-citizens to vote in state and federal elections. But Northeastern experts say there are already laws preventing this and that instances where it does happen are uncommon.
“Voter fraud is vanishingly rare,” says Katherine Haenschen, who was a political organizer working on voter registration efforts before joining Northeastern as an associate professor in communication studies and political science. “There are very, very few instances of people attempting to vote with false identities or trying to falsely register. Even when it does happen, oftentimes those are accidents and not intentional efforts to subvert an election.”
Erin Kayata is a Northeastern Global News reporter. The article is published courtesy of Northeastern Global News.
