New names, same game – the SAVE act, formerly defeated, is back under new guises. This video explains what is going on, and we are rallying support to defeat this renewed effort to suppress people's right to vote. 🗳️🇺🇸

Call your representative and tell them to oppose new voter suppression legislation modeled on the infamous SAVE Act. Last Congress, we helped defeat the SAVE Act, one of the worst voter suppression bills in a half century. Now, a series of bills with the same impact (ending registration by mail, adding new ID requirements that could prevent millions of eligible voters from registering) could get a vote in the House this week. Make sure your rep hears from you before the vote. (More info here.)

Make your voice heard!

Historical and Current Context of Voter Suppression

  • Every time the vote has been significantly expanded for Black people, there have been massive waves of voter suppression.
    • This occurred after the Civil War and the enfranchisement of Black people with the 15th Amendment.
    • It happened again after the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
    • It is happening after the election of the first Black president, with the largest and most diverse presidential electorate ever.

Perspectives on Voter Participation and Strategy

  • Paul Weyrich, speaking in 1980 alongside Jerry Falwell and Ronald Reagan, stated that he does not want everyone to vote.
  • Weyrich claimed that elections are not won by a majority of people and that his group's leverage in elections "goes up as the voting populace goes down".
  • Republicans have concluded that the fewer people who actually cast a vote, the better their chances are of winning.

Focus on Voter ID as a Mechanism for Election Theft

  • Voter ID is described as the "new election theft mechanism".
  • The speaker suggests that the GOP's game plan for the election is based on voter ID, which they say will allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.
  • The argument for voter ID is framed as "voter protection" for the American citizen's vote "from the forces of corruption".
  • Critics claim that the Republican effort is a well-funded, well-organized scheme to promote the notion of "massive democratic voter fraud".
    • The penalty for an individual committing voter fraud is very high, potentially including five years in jail and $10,000 in fines.
    • The video argues that illegal immigrants are not rushing to polling places to vote with false IDs, and that it is difficult to get people to vote even once, "let alone get them to vote twice with a false ID".
    • An organizer reported that in court, it was admitted that there has never been a case of voter impersonation in Pennsylvania.

Impact of Voter ID Laws

  • If a law is not intended to solve a problem, it is intended to be a problem.
  • The people who do not have the "very narrowly tailored type of photo ID" are coincidentally those who tend to vote Democratic: the elderly, students, minorities, and urban dwellers.