At least two major outlets, Newsweek and the USA Today network, carried headlines in news stories—not opinion pieces—warning of such a threat to married women.

The claim is that most women who change their name when they get married don't have a birth certificate or other kind of citizenship document with their current last name on it. So, the argument goes, requiring documented proof of citizenship would create a burden on their ability to register to vote and potentially disenfranchise them.

The claim is disputed by a number of elections experts, with one calling it "preposterous."

Meanwhile, three liberal interest groups—the Campaign Legal Center, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the Center for American Progress—appear to be the primary drivers of the new narrative. These groups have long opposed popular election reforms such as voter ID, updating voter registration lists, and restricting ballot harvesting.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, introduced the SAVE Act again in 2025 for this new session of Congress after the act passed the House last year but not the then-Democrat-controlled Senate. This time, Republicans control both chambers, though Democrats can still filibuster legislation in the Senate.

This novel opposition argument wasn't used against the SAVE Act when the same legislation was debated last year. Meanwhile, the state of Arizona has required proof of citizenship to vote in state elections for more than a decade, but there has been no reported disenfranchisement of married women in that state.

Election integrity advocates note similar tactics were used to argue against voter ID laws, saying they would disenfranchise minorities—predictions that didn't come true. The advocates note that most states have a process in place for people to update documents for a name change.

The USA Today piece carried the headline, "What is SAVE Act? Here's what it could mean for married women and voting rights."

The article cites the Center for American Progress, noting, "They report that as many as 69 million women who've changed their last name to match their spouse's do not have birth certificates that match their legal names."

The Newsweek article carried a headline asserting, "Married Women Could Be Stopped From Voting Under SAVE Act," which relies largely on the Campaign Legal Center as a source for the claims about endangering the voting rights of married women.

Jonathan Diaz, director of voting advocacy and partnerships at Campaign Legal Center, told Newsweek: "Most [married women who have changed their name] do not have a birth certificate or other kind of citizenship document with their current legal name on it."

Glamour magazine also ran a piece with the headline, "The SAVE Act Could Stop Millions of Women From Voting. Here's What You Need to Know." The article relies on the Brennan Center for much of its information. The article claims, "Should the SAVE Act pass, household voting could become the de facto law for married women who changed their last names."

In reality, the legislation amends the 1993 National Voter Registration Act to require states to obtain documentary proof of US citizenship when registering an individual to vote in a federal election.

But key here is that the legislation directs states to "provide reasonable accommodations for disabled Americans and applicants that have discrepancies on their documentation due to a name change."

Cleta Mitchell, a conservative election lawyer and chair of the Election Integrity Network, called the claim that married women will become disenfranchised "preposterous."

"When women change their names upon marriage (or divorce) there is a process for changing/updating [the] name from [the] birth certificate or a prior marriage," Mitchell told The Daily Signal in an email. "Millions of women do it every day so they can operate their lives under their married names."

"Call a credit bureau or look up name changes for credit cards," Mitchell said. "It is ubiquitous in terms of the process, and millions of women do it every day."

She added: "Maybe these left-wing types don't know many married women, and if they do get married, they don't change their names."

The underlying argument, that proof of identity will be difficult for eligible voters, is a familiar one from the Left, noted Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at The Heritage Foundation.

"That is exactly the same idiotic argument used 15 or 20 years ago to oppose voter ID laws," von Spakovsky told The Daily Signal. "It was a ridiculous claim proven not true. Voter ID laws have in no way prevented married women from voting."

In 2004, Arizona voters approved Proposition 200, which mandated individuals provide documentary proof of US citizenship when registering to vote. However, the US Supreme Court ruled in the 2013 case of Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona that the state could not require proof of citizenship for those using the federal voter registration form because of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, but the state could still require proof for state elections.

So, for more than a dozen years, Arizona maintained separate voting lists, requiring proof of citizenship to vote in state elections but not for federal elections. The groups making the claim about the SAVE Act have not pointed to a single alleged instance of women being disenfranchised in Arizona.

Arizona accepts driver's licenses and other government-issued identification cards, birth certificates, US passports, US Citizenship and Immigration Services documents, and tribal identification numbers and documents as proof of citizenship, according to the Arizona secretary of state's website. 

Further, data would indicate Republicans would have little motive to prevent married women from voting. A Pew Research poll last year found that a plurality of 50% of married women are likely to vote Republican, while 45% of unmarried women lean Democrat. Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Fred Lucas is chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal. He is the author of "The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left's Assault on Clean Elections."

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