The California Association of Clerks and Elections Officials (CACEO) has written a letter of concern regarding HR 22, also known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (hence referred to as the SAVE Act.) Broadly the letter addresses the fact that the SAVE Act risks disenfranchising thousands of eligible California voters, significantly increases the cost of election administration at the local level, and may impose criminal penalties on officials who are simply doing their jobs. The full letter of concern can be found here. Del Norte County could also be hit hard by this legislation according to County Clerk/Recorder, Registrar of Voters, Public Administrator Alissia Northrup, a member of the CACEO.
“As written it currently requires voters to appear in person at an elections office to present documentary evidence of proof of citizenship when submitting their affidavit of registration, and that could be to register newly or make changes,” Northrup told Redwood Voice Community News. “So, I mean it could be something as simple as they are changing their party.”
While the legislation puts the onus of proving citizenship on the individual rather than the government and requires county election officials to verify that proof, it also erects barriers to voting for many Americans. Many Americans lack a passport, and their birth certificates may be in different states.
And then there’s the cost. “To get a passport you’re looking at about $200, because by the time you get the pictures and pay the post office because there’s a handling fee, you’re looking at about $200, and it could take anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks.” said Northrup.
Assuming one has their birth certificate or passport, the names must match their photo ID or else the documents will be considered invalid according to the legislation. This will cause citizens who have changed their name for any reason to potentially be excluded from voting. It is currently unclear if supplementary documents such as a name change court order or a marriage certificate will rectify the discrepancy for those who have not changed their birth certificate to reflect their current name. According to the Center for Disease Control/National Center for Health Statistics the number of marriages performed nationally in 2022 was 2,065,905 . With a population of 333,287,557, that’s just over six people per thousand in 2022 alone that could have their ability to vote invalidated from this legislation.
The amount of legwork required to retain and verify citizenship documents and record registrations with these new rules in place would require more staff and funding for the county election office Northrup heads. “A lot of the counties are making budget cuts right now and now here we’re gonna have to go and tell them we need more money and more staff, so that’s not gonna go well,” said Northrup. “We anticipate increases in printing and postage cost, cost for educational literature and just getting information out to voters about what’s going on, voter notifications are going to increase, which means we’ll have to buy the voter notification cards, print them, and send them […] and they all add up.”
With all of these new rules, there are bound to be mistakes and accidents but the legislation has no provisions for these incidents. “We could be held criminally liable if somehow something happens and someone gets registered [erroneously], and something happens we’re on the hook for it. Not just financially, criminal charges,” Northrup said. “We’re not an enforcement agency, even now if there’s something going on with someone that I suspect something, I turn it over to the District Attorney, I don’t go out and try to you know arrest them or charge them.”
The idea of Voter ID is not what Northrup has concerns over. This is an issue of logistics, and another instance of legislators missing the key boots on the ground realities that make enforcing legislation like this difficult. “I don’t have a problem with the idea of voter ID, I think this is bad legislation, I think this is not the way to do it,” said Northrup.
“This happens all the time, legislators write legislation and they have it in their head and it’s an idea, but they’re not the ones who have to implement it, they’re not the ones who have to make it work and so usually what happens is we get this legislation and we do the best we can and then there’s always cleanup because it doesn’t work,” Northrup continued.
”I wish they would have maybe [brought] in people who are going to have to make this work, secretaries of state, election officials, and [have] input from us.”
