- United States
- Calif.
- Letter
Protect the Filibuster — The SAVE Act Must Stay Dead
To: Sen. Padilla, Sen. Schiff
From: A verified voter in Pasadena, CA
June 25
The SAVE Act failed in the Senate, and the filibuster helped make that possible. Do not let anyone dismantle or circumvent it to revive this bill. Millions of Americans lack easy access to passports or birth certificates, and forcing that requirement at voter registration would have disenfranchised eligible citizens on a massive scale — all to solve a problem that Georgetown law professor Steve Vladeck described as occurring at "microscopic numbers."
University of Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller called the bill "among the most significant nationalizations of elections in American history." That alone should give every Republican who claims to believe in federalism serious pause. Senate Majority Leader Thune was right that the votes weren't there. Hold that line. The filibuster exists precisely for moments like this — to stop one party from unilaterally rewriting the rules of democracy. Keep it intact.