By Sarah Baldwin
As a married woman over 60, a retired school teacher, and a lifelong voter, I am deeply concerned about the implications of the SAVE America Act for eligible voters – particularly married women.
Sarah Baldwin
The SAVE America Act passed the House on Feb. 11, and President Donald Trump has urged the Senate to pass it as well. I believe it will make it harder for millions of Americans to vote – and the burden will fall hardest on women.
According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, nearly 80% of married women in the U.S. took their husband’s last name after marriage – and among women over 50, that figure is even higher. Under the SAVE Act’s proposed proof-of-citizenship requirements, any discrepancy between a birth certificate and a current form of identification could create serious obstacles to voter registration.
Millions of married women could face unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles simply because their legal names no longer match their birth records. Public policy should not penalize citizens for common life events like marriage or adoption.
About half of American adults hold a U.S. passport. Fewer than half of women over 65 have one. Obtaining a passport is expensive, and securing a certified copy of a birth certificate takes time and money.
For elderly citizens, low-income Americans, or those who have moved multiple times, these requirements could be especially burdensome. Public policy should not penalize citizens for common life events like marriage or adoption.
Furthermore, the SAVE Act would wrest authority over elections away from the states. Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution explicitly grants states the power to regulate the “Times, Places and Manner” of elections, and the 10th Amendment reserves to states all powers not delegated to the federal government.
That was a deliberate design choice – and for good reason. Allowing the party in power at the federal level to set voting rules creates a dangerous conflict of interest, enabling it to design new rules that entrench its own dominance.
Election security matters – but so does ensuring that lawful voters are not turned away by unnecessary administrative barriers. Confidence in our democracy is strengthened when participation is broad, fair, and accessible to all eligible citizens.
As someone who has voted consistently since the age of 18 – and who remains grateful to the generations of women who fought for that right – I believe we must protect both the integrity of our elections and the fundamental right to vote.
I urge all Texas voters to call or write Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and urge them to vote no on the SAVE America Act. Proof of citizenship sounds simple. For millions of women, it isn’t.
Sarah Baldwin lives in El Paso.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://elpasomatters.org/2026/03/12/opinion-save-act-proof-of-citizenship-married-women-vote-elections/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://elpasomatters.org”>El Paso Matters</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/elpasomatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/cropped-epmatters-favicon2.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
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