On Sunday on MS NOW’s “Velshi,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) said the SAVE America Act, which requires proof of citizenship and a photo ID to vote, is the “equivalent of a show me your papers law.”
Padilla said, “Absolutely nonsensical. I mean, to insist on bringing your birth certificate or a passport, a lot of Americans don’t even have a passport because not everybody travels internationally. It’s the equivalent of a show me your papers law to be able to exercise your fundamental constitutional right to vote. And who would be impacted?”
He added, “You know, the SAVE Act may sound good in some quarters. You know, one big example is what you just said, a woman who may choose to change her name when she gets married. All of a sudden her birth certificate name is different than her ID. And that becomes a problem. It’s never been a problem. It isn’t a problem. Or what about people who live in rural areas have to make their way to a county courthouse to verify their registration. When you already work in probably more than 18 hours a day just to make ends meet. It’s not just an inconvenience. Members of the military, when they’re deployed and they change from one base to another, have to go through hoops to update their registration, to exercise their right to vote when they’re when they should be focusing on their core missions and our national security. Again, the SAVE Act is a solution in search of a problem. The only thing that’s saved is Republican chances of holding on to power. That’s how desperate they are.”
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