The SAVE act is Trump's obsession now. It is supposed to prevent noncitizens from voting, which has been documented again and again over the years, in one state after another, to be a practically nonexistent phenomenon. Recently in Georgia it was found by the (Republican) secretary of state that 20 noncitizens were on the rolls out of 8.2 million registered voters. Of those 20, only 9 actually voted.
The motivation behind the SAVE act is perfectly obvious: Republicans—and Trump especially—believe that it will suppress more Democratic voters relative to Republican ones. That's always the GOP game.
But there is a problem for Republicans: the SAVE act is virtually certain to backfire on Republicans, just as their gerrymandering scheme in Texas is now shaping up to backfire in November since having completely alienated Latino voters in a matter of mere months after Trump's return to the White House.
The source of the problem is simple: As a bloc, women voters skew Democratic, and the SAVE act was engineered to target them specifically. The scam works like this: when registering to vote, women will be required to present a birth certificate showing their current name, and not their birth name. Since only women ever change their last name when marrying, the logic goes, the onus to prove one's citizenship will fall much harder on women than men, with the giddy prospect that many women will just not bother to vote at all if they can't scrape up the time, money, and energy to run through a bureaucratic maze to get a new birth certificate.
Well, not so fast, fascist scum. Here are some cold, hard facts:
In 2024, 52% of married women voted for Trump, but only 38% of unmarried women backed him, making for a yawning 14-point gap in support. And the women most likely to have changed their names are the same ones more likely to vote Republican.
A 2023 Pew study found that 86% of married conservative women took their husband’s last name, compared to 70% of liberal women. Education reinforces the pattern: The more educated a woman is, the less likely she is to change her name—and the more likely she is to vote Democratic.
Source article:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/24/2374641/-Even-Republicans-know-Trump-s-SAVE-Act-will-bite-them-in-the-ass
Before disputing the source article, note that it has solid links to back up its numbers.
And it's not just women that the SAVE act miscalculates on, but also who has a passport. From the same article:
Current passports could solve the documentation issue, but about half of Americans don’t have one. And the same patterns hold: Higher income and higher education make passport ownership more likely, and both of those factors correlate with Democratic voters.
So once again, the burden falls hardest on Trump’s base.
The states where Trump performed best in 2024 tend to have the lowest passport ownership rates. A 2023 YouGov survey found that 52% of Trump voters lacked a valid passport, compared to 45% of Biden voters....Among evangelicals—a core GOP constituency—only 38% have passports. Urban and suburban residents are far more likely to have them than rural voters.
And then there's this:
Women could ostensibly use a marriage certificate to bridge the name-change gap. But that assumes they have one readily available. Many don’t—especially older women...
And replacing them isn’t simple. It costs money, takes time, and often requires in-person trips to government offices.
Those barriers hit hardest in rural areas, where distances between government offices are fewer and distances between them longer, and transportation can be a real obstacle. The very voters most likely to face these hurdles—older, rural women—are also a core part of Trump’s base.
That’s how voter suppression actually works: not through one big barrier, but through a series of smaller hassles. Each step increases the odds that someone decides it’s not worth it and drops out. Those pressures hit hardest among lower-income, older, and rural voters—the same voters the GOP now relies on.
Ultimately the problem for Republicans lies in the fact that they don't really understand the makeup of the MAGA movement—that is, their base. For generations it was Democratic voters who were disproportionately poorer or less educated, but these days things have flipped, and now it's the MAGA voter who tends to have less income and education. The SAVE act comes two decades too late to help the GOP.
As the article points out, many Republicans in Congress seem to understand what a disaster the SAVE act would be for them. They've shown no gusto to "go nuclear," suspend the filibuster, and ram the bill through the Senate.
Just speaking for myself, I would rather the SAVE act be scrapped and Republicans finally grow up and join in on the adult give-and-take that is necessary to have a functioning democracy, even if it means the Democrats only gain 50 seats in the House instead of 60, or 4 seats in the Senate instead of 6. The nation cannot long stand which has one major political party committed to establishing a dictatorship. That way lies civil war.
@Soothfast saidIt's a massive inconvenience for everyone to solve a non existent problem. People will show up to vote with file cabinets to prove their citizenship like they do at the DMV except they already did it when they registered. More government bureaucracy, longer wait times, more workers needed, more people disenfranchised, for nothing.
The SAVE act is Trump's obsession now. It is supposed to prevent noncitizens from voting, which has been documented again and again over the years, in one state after another, to be a practically nonexistent phenomenon. Recently in Georgia it was found by the (Republican) secretary of state that 20 noncitizens were on the rolls out of 8.2 million registered voters. Of those ...[text shortened]... ich has one major political party committed to establishing a dictatorship. That way lies civil war.
The cherry on top is that maga are still going to say the elections they lose were stolen.
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@Soothfast saidIndeed.
The SAVE act is Trump's obsession now. It is supposed to prevent noncitizens from voting, which has been documented again and again over the years, in one state after another, to be a practically nonexistent phenomenon. Recently in Georgia it was found by the (Republican) secretary of state that 20 noncitizens were on the rolls out of 8.2 million registered voters. Of those ...[text shortened]... ich has one major political party committed to establishing a dictatorship. That way lies civil war.
Well-done.
I recommend to people I know, "Save yourself some time and headaches, get your passport now. Better to have your "papers" to show Trump's Gestapo than to not have them and end up in jail."
@wildgrass saidWhy, didn't you know? This is the American conservative's idea of "small government."
It's a massive inconvenience for everyone to solve a non existent problem. People will show up to vote with file cabinets to prove their citizenship like they do at the DMV except they already did it when they registered. More government bureaucracy, longer wait times, more workers needed, more people disenfranchised, for nothing.
The cherry on top is that maga are still going to say the elections they lose were stolen.
Papers, please.
@Suzianne saidRight. Although, I must say, I've read far too many articles about ICE thugs refusing even to look at someone's identification or papers before throwing them in an unmarked SUV and whisking them away for processing in some remote location. I dunno—maybe they can't read?
Indeed.
Well-done.
I recommend to people I know, "Save yourself some time and headaches, get your passport now. Better to have your "papers" to show Trump's Gestapo than to not have them and end up in jail."
@Soothfast saidCould be. I'd buy that.
Right. Although, I must say, I've read far too many articles about ICE thugs refusing even to look at someone's identification or papers before throwing them in an unmarked SUV and whisking them away for processing in some remote location. I dunno—maybe they can't read?
Remember, if they don't want Joe Citizen to know who they are, how do we know these a-holes aren't just a bunch of 'Proud Boy' rejects?
I tell you what, though. NO ONE is throwing me in the back of an unmarked SUV.
@Suzianne saidTravelers should be taking pictures of all ICE assholes in airports, where their masks are off. Upload the pictures to social media where they can be put into a comprehensive database. With such a database it may be possible still to ID the thugs when their masks are back on and they're bludgeoning and shooting civilians on the streets. They don't always put the masks on very well, and facial recognition technology has come a long way in the last few years.
Could be. I'd buy that.
Remember, if they don't want Joe Citizen to know who they are, how do we know these a-holes aren't just a bunch of 'Proud Boy' rejects?
I tell you what, though. NO ONE is throwing me in the back of an unmarked SUV.
@Soothfast saidVive la révolution!
Travelers should be taking pictures of all ICE assholes in airports, where their masks are off. Upload the pictures to social media where they can be put into a comprehensive database. With such a database it may be possible still to ID the thugs when their masks are back on and they're bludgeoning and shooting civilians on the streets. They don't always put the masks on very well, and facial recognition technology has come a long way in the last few years.