Dear Editor, All citizens need to be aware of the dangers of the “SAVE” act that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is now before the U. S. Senate for consideration.
Some politicians are celebrating it as if we’ve never before had voter ID security in any state. This is NOT TRUE. Congress is trying to put a law in place that will cost a lot of money and cause a load of trouble for voters in order to fix a problem that does not exist.
A Brookings study, after analyzing data from multiple states from 13 to 38 years, found some voter fraud, but ONLY in a range of 0.0000294% to 0.0001522%. Those numbers clearly show that we don’t have a significant problem with voter identification. We don’t even have a rounding error.
Rep. Josh Brecheen voted to pass the SAVE act and was one of the ones celebrating. Sen. Markwayne Mullin has stated that he will vote for it when it comes up for consideration in the Senate.
All this, while the right-wing Heritage Foundation database shows that Oklahoma had a whopping five cases of proven fraud from 2017 through 2025.
What these politicians are celebrating is not “improved” voting integrity. They are celebrating voter suppression and what amounts to a “poll tax” because of the time and expense of obtaining birth certificates or U.S. Passports, particularly for married women who took their husbands’ surnames.
Woe to anyone who can’t afford a passport, who lost their birth certificate or who took their husband’s name in marriage. This Congress is counting on people giving up when it comes time to vote, because of the cost and inconvenience entailed in meeting the new identification requirements.
That’s IF the deceptively named “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act” becomes law.
Legislative time and effort are being directed at political nonsense—and bills that benefit the wealthy and the powerful— instead of passing legislation that would actually do some good for the majority of US citizens.
Please contact your U. S. Senators immediately and urge them to vote against the wrongly named SAVE Act. Their numbers are: Sen. Mullin, 202-224-4721; and Sen. Lankford, 202-224-5754. Tell the staff member who answers that you urge the senator to vote NO on the Save Act.
Sincerely, Bryan County Democratic Party