A few months ago, I was eating lunch at Rookies Iola and a man around 50 years old was talking in a rather loud voice about his wife’s experience trying to get a REAL ID.
He was saying that the Kansas Department of Revenue had refused to issue the ID because the last name on her birth certificate was not the same as on her current driver’s license. When they returned with their church’s certificate of marriage, the department refused to accept it and demanded that she order a government-issued certificate of marriage.
The couple decided not to bother getting her a REAL ID because they didn’t want to spend the money to get the certificate and she wasn’t going to need the ID for travel anyway.
I wonder what this couple is going to say if the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) passes at the federal level and the wife is not allowed to vote in federal elections because she doesn’t have the documents necessary to prove her citizenship.
The sponsors state that the purpose of the SAVE Act is to ensure that noncitizens do not vote in our elections.
The law already makes voting by noncitizens illegal. Furthermore, study after study has shown that noncitizen voting rarely happens and certainly not in numbers that can influence the outcome of elections.
Nevertheless, the SAVE Act has passed the House of Representatives and is pending in the Senate. Fifty senators indicate they are ready to pass the bill, but that pesky filibuster stands in their way.
So, let’s look at what the SAVE Act would require as far as registering to vote in federal elections.
Different people have different interpretations of the requirements but, as a former attorney for the Kansas and Colorado legislatures, I have looked at the actual language of the proposed law, and these are my conclusions.
The Act requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote or changing their registration (name changes, party affiliation changes, and address changes).
The Act says that a person can prove citizenship by showing “A form of identification issued consistent with the requirements of the REAL ID Act of 2005 that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States.”
I want to specifically discuss this phrase: “that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States.”
That phrase modifies the reference to Real ID. If the sponsors of the SAVE Act wanted a Real ID to be sufficient for proving citizenship, these words would not have been needed. Instead, it appears that the sponsors wanted the Real ID to note, on its face, that the holder of the ID is a citizen of the United States.
If you have a Real ID, look at it. It does not state anywhere that the holder is a U.S. citizen. The presence of the Real ID star signifies a verification process (you are who you said you are) rather than a declaration of citizenship. Using a strict interpretation of the language and applying the statutory interpretation principle that each word or phrase has meaning, I believe that my Real ID would not be sufficient if I found it necessary to change my voter registration.
So, if I can’t use my Real ID, what can I use to register to vote or change my registration? Proof can also be shown through a valid U.S. passport.
If I didn’t have a passport, I would have to show my birth certificate and all the other documents necessary to show why the last name on my birth certificate is not my current last name.
