SAVE America could affect your ability to vote 

When natural disasters strike, they destroy everything in their wake — including the records that prove who we are. Residents of the Deep South, including communities along the Gulf of Mexico, know this reality all too well.  

Every year, from June 1 through Nov. 30, Southerners prepare for hurricanes. Every year we go through the same checklist: stock up on water and candles and gather our most important documents: birth certificates, passports, our marriage license, Social Security cards, and voter registration cards. It’s been this way since we were children.  

But this year, those documents carry a new weight: they may determine whether we can vote at all.  

If the SAVE America Act passes, our documents are our only proof we’re citizens. This legislation would require voters to provide documentation proving U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections. Much has already been written about how this could disproportionately impact women, Black and Indigenous communities, and older Americans. But for those living in disaster-prone regions, it raises another urgent question: what happens when the documents required to vote are lost to forces beyond our control? 

In recent years, worsening weather patterns have increased both the frequency and intensity of natural disasters across the U.S. In 2023 alone, the country experienced dozens of billion-dollar disasters, continuing a trend of increasingly costly climate events. Some disasters — like hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or snowstorms on the East Coast — allow for preparation. People can evacuate or shelter in........

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