Latino Groups warn of Voter Exclusion!
Miami, US, Feb 12 (EFE).-
Latino civil rights groups warned on Thursday of the potential exclusion of millions of voters, including citizens born in the United States, after the “Save America Act” advanced in Congress. The law, pushed by United States President Donald Trump, would require an official identification for voters.
The organization Voto Latino stated in a press release that the legislation, approved Wednesday by the House of Representatives, “US House passes bill to require voter identification” in elections, reflecting Trump’s increasing attacks on the electoral process.
The group reported that about 146 million Americans do not have a valid passport and 21 million citizens do not have immediate access to their birth certificates or naturalization papers, especially in rural and low-income communities.
Therefore, the organization considered the law to be “about exclusion, not integrity.”
“Fueled by a fear of a growing, diverse electorate, Trump and congressional Republicans are intent on fundamentally dismantling the way US elections are conducted to serve their own political interests,” Voto Latino indicated.
Trump’s initiative moved to the Senate, despite the fact that voting as a non-citizen is already a crime in the US, and 37 of the 50 states already require identification to vote, in addition to the requirement that every person must register in the electoral system beforehand, regardless of whether they vote by mail or in person.
However, the organizations warned that the “bill does nothing to protect” the democracy and instead is framed within Trump and the Republican Party’s claims of electoral fraud, as the president continues to insist there was fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden (2021-2025).
The measure would also affect US-born citizens, such as 69 million women who have changed their last name after getting married, warned the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“The SAVE America Act is another thinly veiled attempt to interfere with our elections. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud that justifies imposing burdensome show-your-papers requirements on every eligible voter,” said Xavier Persad, senior policy counsel for ACLU, in a statement.
Persad asserted that “laws like this have historically resulted in many eligible citizens being delayed or denied access to the ballot due to paperwork issues, database mismatches, or bureaucratic error.”
The group Latino Victory also argued that the law “isn’t about ‘election integrity’, it’s about undermining free and fair elections and suppressing the vote for communities of color and women,” and added that “Republicans are pushing fear-based messaging around “nationalized elections” – but the reality is clear: this bill restricts access to the ballot for millions of Americans, including Latinos.” EFE
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