They WILL stop at *nothing*. Both state and federal SAVE acts WILL effectively undermine democracy. [View all]

It takes 24 paragraphs before the AP article gets around to mentioning that “women who changed their names to marry would likely need additional documentation to register to vote”. Elsewhere, Florida’s bill is mentioned as if it were a toned down version (because it doesn’t take away vote-by-mail) and won’t go into effect until ‘after the midterms’. ‘My highly educated friends already know all about it’, or ‘it’s going to backfire and hurt them because of conservative married women’, says the liberal I try to talk to it about. She is just burnt out. I don’t blame her.

But personally, i can SEE it coming, the oncoming train. Just like I sensed that COVID was going to be a big one. Once in a while, I have focus. And this time, I am sure it is unwise to underestimate the impact.

What will the GOP do to get elected? Electronic voter caging in Florida in 2000? They are strategic. Palantir, Cambridge Analytic, social security data? They are strategic and well-funded and use big data very effectively. From living through their ‘Shock and Awe’ strategy for Iraq to having actually read the Shock Doctrine and listened to Masha Gessen, i do NOT underestimate their malevolent intent.

You think it doesn’t matter because you are already registered? You won’t be, if the partisan Republicans who have been squeezed into positions of authority over elections have their way. And they can use their position in one agency to advise another agency (WEEKLY!) that you’ve MOVED, or that you RENEWED your driver license, and PRESTO! You too can be de-registered. Has the guy with ‘God level access’ to the Social Security Administration been tasked with challenging voter registration status of selected populations by uniting it with Palantir’s personal profiles yet? I’d put the odds at better than 50-50, this is on the agenda.

You think Real ID driver license will help you? Not in 45 states, it won’t. Your expired PASSPORT? Nope. Your birth certificate? Only if it is original or a certified copy — and only if you never changed your name. Your birth certificate plus marriage certificate? Nope. Order a birth certificate? Takes four months to get one in New York.

Florida’s SAVE act doesn’t start until ‘after the midterms’? Maybe — but ever hear of run-offs?
Do you think the GOP is going to go challenge the voting status of married conservative women? Will the Democrats? Not a chance, on either count. Anyone who moves — college kids, laid off workers, apartment dwellers facing escalating rent — will be at risk of needing a passport and/or birth certificate to get re-registered.

You young men out there don’t want to get drafted into Trump’s endless war? Better go get that original birth certificate from your parent’s safe or safe deposit box. Any old women have had a couple of marriages with name changes? Oh man, you have a LONG row to hoe. Get a backup plan. Being registered is NOT sufficient.The Republicans WILL use this to the maximum extent possible. Being registered may well become like Schroedinger’s cat. You won’t know for sure that you’ve been targeted until you show up to vote, and then it will be too late.