Letter to Editor | No Kings rally missing an issue

||| FROM BEV LEHMAN |||

At the Orcas Island No Kings Rally on March 28th the most important issue in this country was absent—voting to change the majority party in the United States Congress.

The SAVE America Act — similar to its predecessor the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act — could
silence millions of voters by creating new barriers to voter registration

The SAVE Act could affect registered voters too. Any time somebody updates their registration, if they change their address, their name or political party, they would need to provide these documents.

More than 21 million Americans are unable to access the additional documents that would be required to register to vote under these bills. A U.S. Passport or birth certificate could be required. People of color, married people who have changed their names, as well as young and elderly people are more likely to have difficulty in accessing these documents.

Another voting barrier—Eliminating Mail Registration and Disrupting Online Registration

In 2022, more than seven million Americans registered to vote by mail, and almost 11 million Americans registered to vote online. These bills would severely threaten mail registration and require online registration systems to be overhauled to fit the bill’s requirements.

In Washington, DC the House of Representatives has passed the SAVE Acts. It is now being debated in the U.S. Senate. To fund pieces of the SAVE America Act in the Senate—Republicans plan to use the process of budget
reconciliation, which cannot be filibustered and thus can be used to pass measures without any Democrat support.
Do we know who counts the votes in Washington state?

The county auditor is the “ex-officio supervisor” for the elections within their county. Each county auditor then
reports to the Secretary of State (SOS) who is responsible for the election results and voter registration management at the state level. There are many people who play a role in counting the votes. However, it is a machine which does the actual counting.

What can each of us do to make sure we have a fair federal election in November?