Alex Padilla Will Stop at Nothing to Destroy the SAVE Act

And you can help!

I was lucky enough to be in a briefing with California Senator Alex Padilla today all about the SAVE America Act.

No matter if you’re worried, or not, this is for you.

If you’re new, I’m kinda known for my summaries of Zoom meetings, so you might wanna stick around.

Padilla is the exactly who we want to be in charge of killing this.

He is the only Democrat who has been a Secretary of State and he actually ran in 2014 after we lost section 4 of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 thanks to the SCOTUS decision on Shelby County v Holder.

He is also the ranking member on the Rules Committee — if you need context that makes him the Senate’s Jim McGovern, and you know how great I think McGovern is. And in the Senate, the main policy era of the Rules Committee is election administration.

So there is no better person to be heading this fight.

Now, what is this fight?

Well, The Save America Act will be going to the Senate floor to begin debate tomorrow at around 2:30pm (it didn’t happen today thanks to weather), it will likely be the main, if not only thing, the Senate focuses on for days, and maybe even weeks, if some Republicans get their way.

Before I go into all the messaging we need to focus on, I want to make sure you go into this breathing.

There is very little chance the SAVE Act will pass the senate. There are several avenues, but they are not likely (and I will explain more about them at the end). And the best way we make them less likely is by spreading this information far and wide.

So breathe, okay?

Here goes.

The goal of the Act is very simple. It is to make it harder not just to register to vote, but to stay registered to vote, and it targets Democrats.

In states that something akin to the SAVE Act have already passed, gun permits count as valid ID, but student ID do not, does that tell you anything?

If the bill were to become law, a drivers license wouldn’t be enough of an ID to vote. You would need to have a passport or your birth certificate. And anyone who has changed their name would need to have their birth certificate AND marriage license.

Some people don’t have a passport, I mean, if you’ve never left the country, why would you? It might even be cost prohibitive to have one.

And, do you know where your birth certificate is? Not everyone does, and not everyone has access even if they do.

Some people, like many Native elders never had one to begin with. And in Native and Rural communities alike, the closest passport office might not be possible to get to, let alone the office to be able to register to vote in person.

And he mentioned that over the course of this debate on the floor, many Dems will be bringing up these specific issues. I know a lot of the Native communities feel left behind, always, but especially on this discussion, but he promised that’s not happening and there WILL be time dedicated to the fears of the Native communities.

And there will be amendments offered specifically about this issue. I do want to be clear, they’re not offering amendments because they want to make a really really bad bill better, but because when they offer amendments that goes into congressional record and can be used in debate, ads and proof of how evil Republicans truly are.

But oh wait, there’s more.

The bill would also give automatic access to the DHS of ALL voter info, both public info and private data. It’s not even just that the fraud Republicans claim doesn’t really exist, it’s also that the DHS system is flawed.

Sen Padilla used the example that his name, Alex Padilla, isn’t uncommon. So if there was an Alex Padilla who was undocumented, his voter registration could be canceled cause the system thought he was that man.

And of course this is all so DHS can deport more people.

Democrats are trying to get answers from DHS, and are planning on bringing this up, as well as if there will be ICE agents at polling places (which is illegal by the way) several times during MarkWayne Mullin’s confirmation hearings. They will either get a direct answer or have a whole lot of clips to make him look very bad.

But oh wait, there’s more.

Republicans will be offering an amendment to ban Mail in Voting, ALL of it, but, as the bill stands right now, it pretty much does that anyway.

If you want to vote by mail, you would have to submit a copy of your drivers license with your ballot, so they could REALLY target anyone they wanted based solely on their votes, that they would actually know and not just speculate about. Plus, who they’d be sharing that data with is anyone’s guess.

This would effect everyone who votes by mail, from people who just chose to, to the disabled and elderly and even military and those who live abroad.

Basically, this is the only way Republicans think they can keep the House and maybe even the Senate in November.

And both Trump and Kristi Noem said as much out loud.

On Feb 13 in Arizona, Kristi Noem said “We’ve been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country.”

And Trump told the GOP in last week’s retreat “It'll guarantee the midterms. It'll guarantee the midterms. If you don't get it, big trouble.”

As Padilla put it, this isn’t the Save America Act, It’s the Save Donald Trump’s Ass Act.

It is a solution in search of a problem. Actually, it’s not, they are trying to fix a problem, theirs.

Their problem is that their record has been unpopular, they’ve hurt and continue to hurt working class families across the country, they are putting healthcare out of reach for so many Americans, and sent us into an endless war, which, with what they’ve spent in the first 11 days could already fund TSA for the entire year.

Okay, so, at this point, you’re probably asking, “Ariella, you’ve refused to talk about this until now, what changed?”

I heard it directly from Padilla. Even though he thinks, and he does still think, this won’t pass, he wants us involved to make sure that becomes the reality.

We can’t just passively hope, we have to do something to make it happen.

So here’s where we are.

This bill is a normal bill. It needs 60 votes to pass the Senate…unless it doesn’t.

On a majority basis, the Republicans can just decide that this bill should have a filibuster exemption. They’ve done it already twice last year. First was to help pass budget cuts and the second was to end the CA Clean Air Act. So it’s possible, unlikely, but possible.

They could also get rid of the filibuster, which Sen John Thune has been against, but John Cornyn, who has historically shut down any talk of ending the filibuster is coming around to, thanks to his hope to get Trump’s endorsement for his Senate race and current run off with Ken Paxton.

It is unlikely, but possible, that because Thune’s job is to represent his caucus, and he doesn’t want to be replaced, if he gets enough shit, he could change his mind on the filibuster.

Finally, someone could do a talking filibuster, but that wouldn’t necessarily change anything either.

Also, Mike Johnson has said the House won’t take up any votes and Trump said he won’t sign any bills until the SAVE America Act passes, so if that is a reality, that could make someone like Thune reconsider his position, but again, this is not a given.

Also please note, that Fetterman is a No. Fetterman is a wildcard and I get why people are scared, but I trust Padilla when he says Fetterman is voting against this.

If it were to pass, or Trump was to try to create another executive order doing the same thing, we would fight it in court, just like the last time Trump tried this, and oh, he lost. AND Mitch McConnell even wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal against the attempt last year.

So it would have to have different regulations than the one that already got thrown out. And a state of emergency that everyone has been floating around wouldn’t hold water either.

The Save America Act might be harder to fight in court, but an executive order is easy, it’s blatantly illegal, and yes that does matter.

Okay, so, you know me, I’m not gonna post something without a call to action.

It is our job to make sure everyone knows what is and isn’t part of the SAVE Donald Trump’s Ass Act. The more people we can reach, the better.

Do not let any Senator off the hook. It doesn’t matter how conservative they are, light up their phones, make it constant. Make it so they feel forced to disconnect their phones and then flood their emails. If you have any sort of platform, use it to get your audience who have Republican Senators to call them.

And if this fails, and it probably will, we have to focus on getting EVERYONE registered to vote. It’s not just about you having a plan, it’s about your friends and family and coworkers having a voting plan too. “We combat these ongoing attacks by voting in every possible situation.”

If you feel scared to vote, or so much as leave the house, as many Americans do, these days, in most states, you can still vote. You can still vote by mail, and as long as you get your ballot in EARLY, like a week early at least, thanks to USPS, your vote should count. You can also vote early in person in most states, and that is also safer.

Don’t let anyone take away your right to vote.

Spread the word, and let’s end this nonsense so effectively that they think it’s political suicide to bring it back.

Ready?