Falsely claims Republicans want to disenfranchise married women voters
By Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor | February 28, 2025
Federal legislation that would require proof of citizenship to vote has sparked opponents to wage a public relations campaign in Michigan. On Monday, Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson released an official statement attacking the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would “amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require proof of United States citizenship to register an individual to vote in elections for Federal office, and for other purposes.”
Republicans in Washington, D.C. and Lansing are lining up in support of SAVE.
Meanwhile, Patrice Johnson, founder and chair of Michigan Fair Elections Institute (MFEI), said,
"This should not be a partisan issue. Why would any elected representative not want to protect each citizen’s vote? For every foreigner ballot, a citizen's ballot is canceled. It’s called voter suppression through vote nullification, and the Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional.”
Johnson added that the public overwhelmingly supports only citizens voting.
Even so, Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is spending the week officially opposing federal legislation that would require proof of citizenship before people can register to vote.
To further emphasize her opposition to the SAVE Act, Benson used her bully pulpit to call a press conference on Thursday. Alongside her on the dais, also condemning the SAVE Act, were Michigan Democrat Senator Jeremy Moss, chair of the Senate Elections & Ethics Committee; Michigan Democrat Representative Steve Wooden, vice chair of the House Election Integrity Committee; Melanie Macey, policy and government affairs director for Promote the Vote; Kyle Zawacki, legislator director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Michigan; and Aghogho Edevbie, Michigan Deputy Secretary of State.
In her remarks, Benson said the SAVE Act “is not about election security; it is a trick because it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote.” She suggested the legislation is politically motivated, that it is “among a group of partisan-driven proposals to further a political strategy.”
Advantages of proof of citizenship at registration
Supporters of the SAVE Act argue the bill is about stopping non-citizens at the time of registration, not on election day.
“Under current Michigan law, whether they want to or not, people are automatically registered to vote when they obtain a driver’s license,” MFEI's Chair Johnson explained. “If they are non-citizens, they are required to take an extra step and notify the state that they are not eligible to vote. To locate non-citizen registrants who may have slipped through the system, clerks are forced to comb the voter registration rolls to look for non-citizens who have may have inadvertently or been misled to register to vote. Their restricted access to citizenship information makes their task next to impossible. The SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship at the time of registration, would prevent all of that.”
Driver’s license doesn’t prove anything
In the press conference, Secretary Benson claimed people have to show documentation to obtain a driver’s license, and “it shows whether they are a citizen or not.”
Yes and no.
Yes, individuals are required to show proof of identity to qualify for a driver’s license. But no, they do not have to be citizens to get a driver’s license. Non-citizens — including international students and green card holders — are allowed to obtain driver’s licenses in Michigan. Applicants are asked to check a box to attest to their citizenship.
Registering to vote online is even easier. According to the state’s official website, “If you have a valid Michigan driver’s license or state ID you can use the online form to register to vote or update your voter registration address in Michigan.” So a non-citizen could receive a state ID and register online.
One journalist asked Benson about the Chinese national who turned himself in after registering and voting on election day in 2024 with only a student ID. Benson deflected the question, saying the example was “an isolated incident” that doesn’t warrant taking a chainsaw to the current system.
"It's isolated," Johnson said, "because no one is checking citizenship. He was only caught because he tried to retrieve his ballot and admitted he was not a citizen."
Michigan Representative Rachelle Smit, the new House speaker pro tempore and chair of the House Election Integrity Committee, who is also a former clerk, reacted to Benson's dismissal of the non-citizen voting incident in Ann Arbor,
"Jocelyn Benson is a liar. She lies about the security of our elections, which is so loose and lax that Chinese citizens are voting in our elections. She lies about the quality of our voter rolls when she has opposed every common sense measure to protect election integrity."
Smit didn't stop there. She went on to say, "Don't trust a liar. Jocelyn Benson can't be trusted to maintain our election systems, and she's saying anything possible to avoid a basic ID requirement to vote."
MFEI's Johnson said opponents to the SAVE Act are trying to claim that non-citizen voting is rare and not worth putting so-called burdensome barriers in place. "The truth is, no one appears to be checking citizenship. Much of the research about the incidence of non-citizen voting took place before 2020, before the flood of unauthorized immigrants into our country. If people are willing to cross our borders illegally, they might also be willing to vote in our elections illegally.”
SAVE Act harmful to women
Both Benson and Senator Wooden said the SAVE Act would be especially detrimental to women voters, potentially disenfranchising millions of married women who could not use their birth certificates to prove their identity because they have taken their spouse’s name.
Mainstream media headlines are hammering this claim. On Wednesday, for example, a CBS News headline said, “Experts warn the proposed SAVE Act could make it harder for some married women to vote.”
The Center for American Progress says 69 million women could lose the right to vote. VIDEO: Fact check: Would SAVE Act disqualify voters who have changed their names?
Johnson dismissed the claim as an empty "scare tactic."
"Married women have to provide birth certificates and marriage licenses in order to change their names with the Social Security Administration and on their bank accounts, for their driver's licenses and credit cards. Sure, the process is a nuisance, but thousands of people do it every day. When you get married you are provided the forms to change your name."
What the SAVE Act does
The bill, a priority of House Republicans, would require people registering to vote or updating their voter registrations to use certain identifying documents, including military IDs, enhanced IDs showing citizenship, birth certificates or passports to prove citizenship.
According to Politifact, the U.S. House passed the bill in 2024, but it stalled in the Senate. In January, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, reintroduced the bill for the current Congress. A passport alone would be sufficient to register under the bill, but a person who presents a birth certificate also would need a photo ID that matches the birth certificate’s information.
Politifact gave the Democrat claim of disenfranchising women voters a "mostly false" rating on its Truth-O-Meter.
Democrats have new legislation coming
While most of Thursday’s presser was about Michigan Democrats taking a united position against the SAVE Act, they also used the press gathering to roll out their version of election integrity. In the coming weeks, Benson promised she would be sharing more details about the Michigan Election Security Act.
A vote on the SAVE Act is likely in the next few weeks.
Readers who would like to contact their U.S. Congressmembers may click here.
Kristine Christlieb serves as senior correspondent on MFEI's communications team. She publishes Trust but Verify on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/trustbutverifyreport/p/voter-registration-blitzkrieg?r=2haa2x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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