Youth Vote Coalition Calls Out Democratic Leadership, Urge Them to Block Save Act

NextGen America, Sunrise Movement, Alliance for Youth Action, and Generation Vote Action, are calling on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to oppose the SAVE Act

Washington, D.C. — Today, the country’s leading youth vote organizations NextGen America, Sunrise Movement, Alliance for Youth Action, and Generation Vote Action delivered a letter to Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Senator Dick Durbin, and Congresswoman Katherine Clark urging them to oppose the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility” (SAVE) Act.

This bill, which was brought to the floor today and re-introduced this January in Congress and declared a top priority by House Republican leadership, is a voter suppression bill. If passed, the SAVE Act would require people to provide proof of citizenship by presenting a passport or birth certificate when registering to vote, disenfranchising millions of eligible American voters and disproportionately impacting younger voters.

In addition to penning a letter to Democratic Congressional leaders, NextGen America and partners are directing young people to participate in various calls to action, including peer-to-peer textbanks and phonebanks urging young people to write their representatives and ask they vote ‘no’ on the SAVE Act. So far, NextGen America has texted over 24,000 young people and called nearly 5,000 more.

More than 21 million U.S. citizens of voting age don’t have proof of citizenship readily available, and only about half of Americans under 30 have a passport. In order to protect young American’s basic rights to use their voice at the ballot box, Democratic leaders must hold the line.

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About NextGen America

NextGen America is the leading national organization for engaging young people through voter education, registration and mobilization. We invite 18-to-29 year olds — the largest and most diverse generation in American history — into our democracy to ensure our government works for them and to find new solutions to the dire challenges facing our society and the world. Since 2013, NextGen America has registered over 1.6 million young voters, empowering the next generation to lead and drive lasting change.