California doesn’t want proof of citizenship for voters to be eligible to vote
California – California Attorney General Rob Bonta is one of 12 attorneys general who are asking the U.S. Senate to reject the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America, Act. They say that the bill would change the way elections are run and make it harder for eligible voters to vote.
The organization said that the bill would take away long-held responsibilities from states and put in place procedures across the country that might prevent millions of Americans from registering or voting.
Supporters of the idea, such as President Donald Trump and some Republicans in Congress, believe that the initiative is meant to make elections more transparent. The attorneys general, on the other hand, pointed to repeated audits, court decisions, and bipartisan investigations that have shown U.S. elections to be safe and voter fraud to be quite rare. Their most recent letter comes after an earlier one led by Bonta that opposed a different version of the same idea.
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One of the coalition’s main concerns is that voters must show proof of citizenship, like a passport or birth certificate, in person when they register or change their registration. Driver’s licenses, even REAL IDs, as well as military or tribal IDs alone would not meet the criteria.
The attorneys general said that tens of millions of Americans do not have passports and that many married women do not have birth certificates that show current legal names. People who live in rural areas may also have trouble going long distances to government offices to turn in documents in person.
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Bonta added that the law threatens people’s right to vote and comes at a time when there are more efforts to question the results of elections and change how people vote.
“The SAVE America Act is a full-fledged attack on the right to vote. I urge the U.S. Senate to do the right thing and oppose it,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The reality is that our elections are already secure, safeguarded by multiple layers of protection. However, in recent months, President Trump’s efforts to undermine our democracy have increased.
The group also said that the proposal would put a lot of stress on state electoral systems, both financially and administratively, and would require major adjustments to how things are done before the 2026 midterm elections. They also warned that under the new rules, election officials could face criminal charges if they make mistakes.
Bonta’s letter to the Senate asking them to reject the proposal was signed by attorneys general from Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington.
