Unsatisfied with the existing identification requirements to vote in Virginia, on Feb. 1 Republicans in Virginia’s House of Delegates voted to make it even harder to vote in state elections. If this were to pass, in order to register to vote in Virginia’s state elections, Virginians would need to prove citizenship by providing a birth certificate, a passport, or naturalization documents. This is part of the continued Trump-led Republican effort to attack the very soul of our democracy by raising concerns about non-existent voter fraud and then pretending to fight it.
These restrictions will not stop voter fraud because that fraud does not exist. What the restrictions will do is send Virginians rooting through boxes of decades-old files containing birth certificates and passports. Passports are expensive, and birth certificates are hard to obtain, especially if you were born somewhere outside the U.S. These restrictions will keep ordinary, every day Virginians from voting to choose their representatives.
Republicans are doing their best to keep Virginians from the polls, but they cannot keep us from the phones. Unless you are currently holding your birth certificate or passport in your hands, I recommend picking up your phone and calling your state senator before they try to take that away too.
Kenneth Bledsoe
Reston