Now They're Coming After Our Voting Rights? What's Next - an Eye Patch?

Since, 1965, all US citizen women have had the right to vote in the United States. However, this right to vote is being threatened, swept up in a desperate grab for power by the far right (I stand behind the use of that term). First, Project 2025 is an audacious grab for many of the freedoms that we take for granted, written and supported by far-right Christian ideology - or, at least, what these people say is Christian (I don't believe that what they preach is Christian). Although Trump ultimately distanced himself from the "project" - written by the Heritage Foundation, a crazy pants think tank - many of his executive actions at the beginning of his second term mirrored its ideology. Further, many of his actions now mirror its ideology - specifically hiring loyalists and conservatives hired in the federal government.

Add to that the SAVE Act, which would discourage millions of people from voting, including the poor, who are most likely to have the required documentation lying around. The law requires people to bring in proof of citizenship to a government center - it's not possible to mail it in or do it online. This means that people that do not have transportation are out of luck.

Furthermore - and this is very important to the women's issues of it - women who have changed their name since birth will have to bring in another document - proof that they are the person of the original name and the changed name. This is an extra burden and discourages women from voting.

Add to that several Supreme Court cases that are in the works - Callais v. Louisiana, where the Court could overturn Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits redrawing voting districts to disenfranchise racial minorities.

At the state level, laws abound that seek to infringe upon voting rights, including in Ohio, where a law made it difficult for people to mail in their ballots. A disabled woman argued that this violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. In Alabama, the government started "voter purges", which simply removed those that were naturalized (not born) US citizens from the voters' roll. This was defeated in the lawsuit, but what the actual hell?

Of course, race and sex are inextricably linked as RBG noted in her brief for Reed v. Reed. Both groups are being targeted with these new "voting rights" measures, although it does seem clear that racial minority voters are being more extensively targeted.