U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has defended her vote for the SAVE America Act, saying that those who can’t produce a passport or birth certificate can attest their citizenship to register to vote, so no worries.
Not quite. Here’s what the bill says (if you don’t want to take my word for it, visit Congress.gov and search for “full text of the SAVE America Act”): “‘Subject to any relevant guidance adopted by the Election Assistance Commission, each State shall establish a process under which an applicant who cannot provide documentary proof of United States citizenship under paragraph 25 may, if the applicant signs an attestation under penalty of perjury that the applicant is a citizen of the United States and eligible to vote in elections for Federal office, submit such other evidence to the appropriate State or local official demonstrating that the applicant is a citizen of the United States and such official shall make a determination as to whether the applicant has sufficiently established United States citizenship for purposes of registering to vote in elections for Federal office in the State.”
Gluesenkamp Perez said that she consulted constitutional lawyers about this wording. I’m not a constitutional lawyer, just a former legal secretary, but I see some problems.
First, even if the Election Assistance Commission could develop and distribute guidelines clarifying what “other evidence” proves citizenship in time for literally millions of people to re-register before the midterms, the president fired the last EAC members last week.
Since the EAC no longer exists to provide “relevant guidance,” SAVE America lets local or state officials decide if a person’s “other evidence” counts, or doesn’t, to establish their citizenship. This places citizens’ fundamental right to vote in the hands of a county clerk. Let’s imagine a couple of scenarios: Betty Jo walks into the county clerk’s office in Amarillo, Texas, and explains that she took her husband’s name, can’t find her birth certificate, and doesn’t have a passport. She shows a driver’s license plus mortgage documents to prove residence. The clerk looks at Betty Jo’s blonde hair and blue eyes and stamps approval on her affidavit.
Juanita walks into that same county clerk’s office with the same situation and documentation. The clerk looks at Juanita’s brown eyes and dark-complected skin. He hears her accented English. Now it’s up to him whether or not Juanita gets to vote.
If you were a passport-less citizen who can’t find your birth certificate, and your name were Juanita, would you risk going to the county clerk’s office to attest your citizenship?
Bear in mind that to make the president’s 2,700 per day quota, ICE is grabbing people based on the color of their skin, has mistakenly detained hundreds of American citizens and legal residents, then moved them to different states and denied them access to lawyers.
Faced with that, how many Juanitas would just keep their heads down and not vote?
SAVE America’s citizenship attestation clause is ambiguous for a reason. Did Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez ask her lawyers about that?
Susanne Weil
Onalaska
