1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

I urge you to oppose HB22, the SAVE Act, which would impose documentary proof of citizenship requirements on all voter registration for federal elections. This legislation threatens to disenfranchise eligible American citizens while addressing a problem that essentially does not exist. The SAVE Act amends the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require documents like birth certificates, passports, or naturalization certificates before accepting any voter registration. This mandate would force states to audit existing voter rolls and remove registrations lacking citizenship documentation, affecting millions of currently registered voters. The bill provides no federal funding despite imposing massive costs on states for new verification systems, database integration, and administrative processing. This requirement will create substantial barriers for eligible citizens who lack ready access to these documents. Name changes present a particularly significant obstacle. Married individuals who changed their names, divorced people who reverted to previous names, and transgender individuals who updated their names to reflect their identity all face the burden of obtaining additional documentation to prove the connection between their current legal name and their birth certificate. This means securing marriage certificates, divorce decrees, or court orders for name changes, adding layers of bureaucracy, expense, and delay to what should be a straightforward registration process. Elderly voters, low-income individuals, and naturalized citizens who may struggle to obtain decades-old records face particular hardship. Many Americans simply do not possess passports or have immediate access to birth certificates. The cost and effort required to obtain these documents functions as an effective poll tax, potentially violating the Twenty-Fourth Amendment's prohibition on conditioning voting rights on payment. The legislation solves virtually no problem while creating enormous obstacles. Non-citizen voting in federal elections is exceedingly rare, yet this bill would dramatically reduce voter registration rates among eligible citizens. The private right of action provision invites endless litigation against election officials, further straining already limited resources. The rigid documentary requirements include no hardship exceptions or alternative verification methods. Eligible citizens who cannot obtain proper documentation despite their citizenship status face disenfranchisement. This represents an unacceptable trade-off that sacrifices fundamental voting rights to address a non-existent threat. I ask you to oppose HB22 and protect the voting rights of eligible American citizens who should not face unnecessary barriers to exercising their constitutional right to vote.