Photo IDs and newly married women

H.R. 7296 — Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (aka, SAVE America Act) is the version of H.R. 22 to which the U.S. Senate added a section requiring a photo ID for voting in federal elections. There’s no shortage of politicians, pundits, commentators and websites that assert the act is racist and will suppress minority voting. But, the photo ID requirement of the act has attracted the most attention with claims that up to 15 million women will be disenfranchised each federal election because the married surnames on their photo IDs don’t match their last names on the voter registration rolls.

But the people and organizations that object to the act on behalf of newly married women fail to mention that 24 states already have photo ID requirements to vote in municipal, state and federal elections. If those states had denied voting to women on the basis of mismatched last names, there would have (rightly) been lawsuits filed and injunctions granted. But, all of those 24 states continue to have photo ID laws on their books. Perhaps it’s because those states (like the other states) provide procedures for correcting various discrepancies through provisional ballots or affidavits of identity and residency.

The voting records of newly married women in these 24 states provide evidence that photo ID requirements do not disenfranchise them.

Randy Harris

Campton Hills