Married women could be blocked from voting in US elections after the House of Representatives passed a bill requiring proof of citizenship to cast a ballot.
Critics argue the Save (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) Act, which is intended to stop illegal immigrants voting, could potentially disenfranchise millions of women who have changed their last name.
The legislation requires people to present a passport, birth certificate or military documents so they can register to vote.
Democrats claimed it would block swathes of the electorate from voting because millions of American women do not have a birth certificate in their current legal name, while only about 50 per cent of the US population own a valid passport.
The bill passed the House by a 220-208 vote on Thursday with the support of all of the chamber’s Republicans and four Democrats, but will not become law unless it is approved by the Senate.
Legislation ‘restricts access to the ballot box’
Mark Pocan, a Democrat congressman from Wisconsin, said that “nearly 70 million women” do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name and warned that the legislation “restricts access to the ballot box”.
Jimmy Gomez, a Los Angeles representative, claimed Republicans who voted for the bill “should be asked why they are opposed to married women voting”.
“It will make it so that people in this country who have every right to vote can’t vote, and for no good reason,” said Hannah Fried, head of All Voting is Local, a voting rights organisation.
“We don’t need this hurdle. Only citizens are voting in this country. We have other checks and balances, and this is just a demonstrably unnecessary piece of legislation.”
White House: Democrats are fearmongering
However, Republicans insisted that married women would not be disenfranchised because the legislation made allowances for citizenship documents, such as birth certificates, that had not been updated with name changes.
Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, called criticisms of the bill “absurd”.
“What [we’re] trying to do is protect the ability of non-citizens to participate in our elections. Plain and simple. That’s what this is about,” he said this week.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, dismissed the criticisms of the “common sense” bill on Friday.
“The Democrats have been fearmongering about this bill… saying that married women, if their name has changed, they didn’t change it on their identification, would not be able to vote,” she said.
“That is complete fallacy. [It is] outlined in the bill about how to avoid that.”
She told reporters in the White House briefing room: “I myself as a married woman would not stand before this podium if the president did not support such a common-sense measure.”
