Democratic Women’s Caucus Demands Trump Revoke Executive Order that Would Disenfranchise Millions of Women Voters

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03), and Policy Task Force Co-Chairs Deborah Ross (NC-02) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) led 18 of their colleagues in sending a letter to President Trump expressing their grave concerns with his Anti-Voter Executive Order and demanding he revoke it.

The Executive Order signed by President Trump on March 25 is advertised as a way to prevent non-citizens from voting—a policy that is already law. If implemented, the Order would disenfranchise millions of voters, particularly women voters, by requiring documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote. 

The Executive Order names only one specific document that can be used as proof of citizenship in order to register to vote: a U.S. passport. But 146 million Americans don’t have a passport—and up to 69 million women lack citizenship documents that show their legal name because they changed their name after marriage. This impacts nearly 30% of the voting population.

President Trump’s Executive Order is very similar in substance to the SAVE Act. This Executive Order is the President’s unconstitutional attempt to implement the SAVE Act without Congress but with the same consequences. 19 states are currently suing the Trump administration over the executive order. It is still expected that Republicans will bring the SAVE Act to the House floor again this week.  

In their letter, the Members explain to President Trump how the Executive Order would make it harder for women across the country to register to vote: 

“Your actions will make voting too expensive and burdensome: an illegal poll tax that disproportionately targets women. Women will pay the price for your Executive Order –covering costs for documents that show their birthplace, costs to travel in person for a passport or birth certificate, and costs to travel just to register to vote. On top of that, your Executive Order will cost women their time – time off work, time to drive, and time away from their families, just to register to vote. Registering to vote should not be this difficult or cost this much. Women can’t afford this Executive Order.”

The Members continued:

“The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy. No American should be penalized for making a legal and overwhelmingly common decision to change their surname. We demand you revoke the Executive Order and work to make sure voting is accessible to all, especially women.”

The full letter can be accessed here:

In addition to letter leads Teresa Leger Fernández, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, and Deborah K. Ross, the letter was signed by: Nanette Barragán, Joyce Beatty, Julia Brownley, Diana DeGette, Maxine Dexter, Laura Friedman, Sylvia Garcia, Betty McCollum, LaMonica McIver, Gwen Moore, Eleanor Norton, Brittany Pettersen, Delia Ramirez, Andrea Salinas, Norma Torres, Nydia Velázquez, Nikema Williams, and Frederica Wilson.