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Why the SAVE Act must not pass Congress
William Moroz
The right to vote in the United States has never come easily. For much of the nation’s history, large groups of Americans were denied access to the ballot box.
Women were not guaranteed the right to vote until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, and many Black Americans continued to face discriminatory barriers until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
Over time, the country has worked to remove obstacles that prevented citizens from participating in democracy. That history is why proposals like the SAVE Act deserve scrutiny. While the proposal is presented as a measure to protect election integrity, requiring proof of citizenship to vote risks creating new barriers for eligible voters.
Debates about election integrity have become a defining feature of American politics since the 2020 presidential election. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that widespread fraud occurred when he lost to Joe Biden. However, numerous investigations and court rulings found little evidence that the 2020 election was compromised.
Despite those findings, a new proposal known as the SAVE Act has emerged. The SAVE Act, short for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would require Americans to provide documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, when registering to vote in federal elections.
At first glance, the proposals sound reasonable. Only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections. However, the SAVE Act attempts to solve a problem that little evidence suggests actually exists, which will make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.
For college students who register to vote on campus, obtaining official citizenship documents may not be simple. Many students do not carry birth certificates or passports with them at school, which will create unnecessary barriers to participation.
Another consequence of the SAVE Act involves Americans who have legally changed their names. Millions of married women in the United States take their spouse’s last name, meaning the name on their birth certificate no longer matches the name on their driver’s license or voter registration. If proof of citizenship is tied strictly to documents like birth certificates, many of these voters could face additional bureaucratic hurdles when registering to vote. Policies intending to protect elections should not make it harder for eligible citizens to exercise their right to vote.
Another issue with the SAVE Act is the assumption that most Americans already possess documents proving citizenship. Millions of Americans do not have ready access to identifying documentation. Obtaining these documents requires time, fees, and dealing with slow and often outdated bureaucratic processes. For individuals working multiple jobs, caring for families, or living far from government offices, these requirements will discourage participation in elections even more than there already is by creating more red tape.
There is also the broader constitutional question regarding federal authority. Historically, states have played the primary role in administering elections and managing voter registration systems. A sweeping federal mandate dictating documentation requirements risks overriding systems that states have developed since the country’s conception. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all rule from Washington, policymakers should work with states to strengthen election administration without creating unnecessary barriers.
It is also important to remember that non-citizen voting is already illegal and carries serious penalties.Individuals who attempt to vote unlawfully can face fines, imprisonment, and deportation. Election officials across the country already verify voter registration information and maintain voter rolls to prevent ineligible voting. Creating sweeping new documentation requirements for every voter is not the most effective way to address a problem that existing laws already prohibit.
In Connecticut, where many college students register to vote on campus and where voter participation is often encouraged through civic engagement programs, policies like the SAVE Act will create unnecessary barriers for eligible voters.
The SAVE Act is being promoted as a safeguard for elections, but in practice it will move the country in the wrong direction. Throughout American history, progress in democracy has meant removing barriers to voting, not creating new ones. From the expansion of voting rights in the nineteenth century, to the Nineteenth Amendment, to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the nation has gradually worked to make participation in democracy more accessible.
Policies promoted during the Trump administration, such as the SAVE Act, threaten to reverse the progress that civil rights advocates have fought so hard for. If enacted, it would introduce new bureaucratic obstacles for millions of eligible voters.
At a moment when our democracy is at risk, the SAVE Act must not pass.
William Moroz is a political science student at Southern Connecticut State University and president of the Student Government Association.
Governor argues weakly against voter ID proposal
Chris Powell
Democratic leaders in Connecticut are clamoring against what Republicans in Congress are calling the SAVE Act, which would require people registering to vote to produce proof of citizenship. Since the state’s congressional delegation is entirely Democratic and there is little chance that the state will elect any Republican to Congress this year, the Democrats may fear that the principle of the SAVE Act makes so much sense that Republicans could exploit it even in Connecticut.
National opinion polls show the public overwhelming favors requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.
So the other day Governor Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, and Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas held a press conference to publicize their opposition to requiring proof of citizenship. Their arguments were weak but they could have been confident that reporters would not question them critically.
“I don’t want to put up all these bureaucratic roadblocks to make it tougher” to vote, the governor said. He added: “I don’t think I need any lectures about election fraud from a president who famously called the secretary of state down in Georgia and told him to ‘find me 11,780 votes.’”
Yes, President Trump is often disgraceful. But that is not an argument for or against policy; it is a distraction, frequently used by Democrats these days to change the subject.
As for what the governor calls “all these bureaucratic roadblocks,” meeting the requirement of the SAVE Act — producing proof of citizenship — would not be onerous. Proof would be constituted by a birth certificate, a naturalization certificate, or a U.S. passport. While many citizens haven’t secured their birth certificate, replacing one is not difficult, and maintaining one may be considered part of basic responsibility to one’s family and society.
After all, producing identification is required in many aspects of daily life -- like banking and obtaining government licenses, transportation tickets, and telephone and utility services. Nearly everyone in the country has often had to produce identification in pursuit of a normal life.
Replacing a birth certificate may take a while, but a requirement for proof of citizenship in voter registration could give people plenty of time to get their documents in order. The next elections are seven months away.
As for Trump’s corruption in pursuit of extra votes in Georgia, how much more corrupt was that than the last Democratic national administration’s opening the borders to millions of illegal immigrants. How much more corrupt was it than Connecticut’s issuance of driver’s licenses and New Haven’s issuance of city identification cards to illegal immigrants precisely to facilitate their living in the state illegally and thereby to increase the number of Democrat-dominated state and federal legislative election districts?
At the press conference Secretary Thomas noted that under the SAVE Act driver’s licenses would not help people register to vote. Well, of course not. As shown by Connecticut’s own driver’s licenses issued to illegal immigrants, driver’s licenses aren’t proof of citizenship.
Opposing requiring proof of citizenship in voter registration, Connecticut Democrats note that there isn’t much evidence of illegal immigrants voting. But it does happen sometimes, there long has been much evidence of election fraud in Bridgeport, and recently a member of Tolland’s Town Council -- a Republican -- was exposed as having changed his legal residence to Florida and having registered to vote there without resigning from the council.
Indeed, some Democrats around the country already propose to let non-citizens vote in municipal elections.
In any case Connecticut has never done a serious audit of its voter rolls and the state allows anyone to register to vote simply by claiming to be a citizen, at the risk of being charged with making a false statement. But such claims are never checked, and people know it.
The governor doesn’t want to be lectured about election security by Trump. Fair enough. So why should supporters of a citizenship requirement for voter registration want to be lectured about election security by a governor who is enthusiastically subverting enforcement of immigration law?
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years.
Turning Back the Pages - April 9, 2026
Norma Bosworth
125 years ago —
April 1901
U.S. Attorney-General Griggs, who resigned from President McKinley’s cabinet last week, expects to spend the month of July with his family at the Hillhurst, Norfolk.
A peddler crossing Canaan Mountain a few days ago met with quite a serious accident. His horse slipped and fell into water so deep that he had to tie up the horse’s head to keep it from drowning while he went for assistance. After several hours’ labor with plenty of help they succeeded in rescuing the horse and cart.
SHARON — Miss Lottie Miller, the Central girl, is ill with the grip at her home on Sharon Mountain.
LIME ROCK — The Barnum, Richardson Company is receiving a car-load of Fancy Oregon seed oats this week.
100 years ago —
April 1926
Adv.: WANTED — Household assistant for summer months in house with all conveniences. No objection to elderly woman. Mrs. Walter Angus, Taconic.
Local motorists are warned to operate their cars very slowly and carefully while passing through the town of Amenia. A new traffic cop in that place is taking his duties very seriously.
50 years ago —
April 1976
Over the strong objections of a prominent dairy farmer seeking to preserve his view, the Hartford Electric Light Co. has placed a new 80-foot-high transmission pole in the middle of a pasture at the foot of Roberts Hill near the Goshen- Cornwall line. The farmer is Willis Ocain of Cornwall Hollow, the fourth generation of family that has farmed in the same locations. He criticized HELCO and its parent company, Northeast Utilities, for not consulting him on the location of 11 new poles on his property, contending that the pole in the middle mars a prized pastoral scene and violates terms of an easement previously granted by his grandfather.
LAKEVILLE — “Virtually all” of the merchandise taken in a Saturday night break-in at Community Service had been recovered, proprietor Michael Turnure said Tuesday. Several persons saw the burglary in progress but did not report it, according to Turnure. Two garbage cans full of stolen goods were found in the Community Service lumber yard across the street from the store, he said. A wheelbarrow from the store apparently was used to carry the things to their hiding place.
Champion Cairnwoods Quince, leading male Cairn terrier in the country and owned by the Taylor Colemans, returned in triumph to his home at “Wolfpit” in Sharon on Sunday. In competition with 278 other terriers, he was named winner by Judge Peter Knoop at the Western Pennsylvania Kennel Association Show at Pittsburgh. Quince, on a national rating, was one of the top 10 terrier male producers in 1974 and 1975 and top Cairn in dog show wins for the same two years.
25 years ago —
April 2001
CORNWALL — Celebrating 25 years of touring with international arts programs, East-West Fusion Theatre actress Teviot Fairservis from Cornwall Bridge has been selected as a “Connecticut Master Teaching Artist” by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. She has performed and taught for East-West in more than 2,000 schools in 30 states.
SALISBURY — It’s been a rough year for the venerable stone kettle outside Town Hall. The century-old fountain has been vandalized twice in recent months. And, adding insult to injury, local health authorities have now decreed that natural spring water will never be allowed to flow through it again. The Torrington Area Health District required the town to shut off the spring water supply to the kettle in 1998, when traces of coliform bacteria turned up in tests of the water. The water now coming from the fountain is actually regular old tap water provided by Bridgeport Hydraulic Company.
Kent Memorial Librarian Deborah Custer was feted at a well-attended party in her honor last Friday evening. After working more than 20 years at the facility, Mrs. Custer is retiring and moving to Maine.
CANAAN — “It’s so simple,” is often used to describe the most ingenious inventions. But few will be saying “Why didn’t I think of that” when they hear of an idea at one local farm. For now, they are affectionately called “poop pots” by the Freund family at their East Canaan farm. And the name says it all. They look like the peat pots used for starting plants indoors. The difference is they are made from composted cow manure. No, they don’t have an odor and they are perfectly hygienic.
These items were taken from The Lakeville Journal archives at Salisbury’s Scoville Memorial Library, keeping the original wording intact as possible.
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Navigating the unfriendly skies
Bill Schmick
Airlines and passengers alike are buffeted by everything from weather to war. Long lines at the security gates, cancelled or delayed flights, war, weather, and the stock market have hurt both commercial carriers and their human cargoes.
March had not been good for either airline or its passengers. More than 12,500 U.S. flights were delayed by storms in some cases on. Daily basis as storms buffeted the East Coast and other locales. American Airlines, Southwest, and Delta delayed or canceled 45% of flights in a recent week. This is nothing out of the ordinary. Severe weather this winter has become just another liability for both carriers and passengers.
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began, conflict forced the cancellation of more than 52,000 flights to and from the Middle East. Since then, airlines that once relied on flying over Iran and other Gulf states must find alternative routes to their destinations. Geopolitical strife seems to be cropping up wherever you look (or fly over). What was once an efficient and finely tuned worldwide aviation travel network is now at risk of becoming a patchwork of fragmenting connections and workarounds.
As a result, not only are airplanes burning more fuel since they are forced to travel longer distances, but flights are getting longer and longer to get from point A to point B. Not only does this eat into carriers’ profitability, but it also adds to the woes of your typical passengers. The price of flights is rising along with oil, making it harder to travel long distances, even if one is lucky enough to catch a flight.
Geopolitical conflicts have become a nightmare for travelers.Thousands have been stranded in the Middle East, and before that by the Venezuela/U.S. raids, and let’s not forget the past four years of ongoing conflict between the Russia and Ukraine war.
Adding insult to injury, depending upon the airport, air travelers were encountering long airport security lines, some of which snaked out to the sidewalks surrounding the airport. Many major airports were experiencing nearly 3 hours in TSA lines, causing massive delays and missed flights during peak hours. Delays of at least 1 hour were reported in Atlanta, New Orleans, Charlotte, and Houston.
The culprit was the partial federal shutdown of Homeland Security funding, which had led to staffing difficulties at the Transportation Security Administration. Security personnel, until this week, had not received a paycheck for weeks. The U.S. Senate is still squabbling over funding.
The president sent his ICE agents to help but reports were that they were simply making matters worse. Finally, Trump ordered the head of Homeland Security to find the money and pay the TSA workers. He did. Readers might wonder why Trump had not simply done that in the first place.
Like consumers, airlines are also grappling with higher energy prices. A sharp spike in jet fuel costs have decimated profits. Since the start of the war, the global average price of jet fuel has soared 58%, based on International Air Transport Association data. Since then, it has almost doubled. Fuel accounts for 20-25% of airline operating costs, and average prices have risen from $2.50 before the crisis to $4.57 per gallon now. Although some airlines hedge, many do not, and hedging often covers only part of their fuel needs.
Advance purchase fares more than doubled for transcontinental flights in the first week of the war. Fares to the Caribbean jumped 58% and 43% to Florida. Several airlines, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region, have either increased fares or announced fuel surcharges. Air India, for example, tacked on a $50 ticket charge for all flights to Europe, North America, and Australia. Cathay Pacific doubled fuel surcharges starting March 18th.
U.S. airlines on domestic flights are prohibited from levying a separate fuel surcharge. Instead, they include fuel costs in the overall ticket price. Flyers can expect ticket prices to increase this summer unless oil prices drop back to pre-war levels in the next week or so. In the meantime, expect premium add-ons like seat upgrades, extra legroom seats, checked bags, or priority boarding to be adjusted upward.
Airline stocks have dropped sharply since the Iran war, driven by higher fuel costs and flight disruptions. U.S. airlines have generally underperformed the market this year, reflecting persistent concerns about weaker demand and limited pricing power. The industry also faces elevated labor costs and ongoing pilot shortages.
However, in recent days, some brave-hearted traders have been buying the dip in this area. Airline management says revenues are still increasing in both international and domestic travel, despite the challenges they face. Delta Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines all raised their revenue outlooks for the year. Consumer demand is still robust, they say, despite the long lines, added expense, and frustration.
Some airlines are now warning that they will be cutting back flights on less travelled and therefore less profitable routesAnalysts are warning that the higher oil prices climb and the longer they remain elevated, the greater the risk that flyers will pull back, and with them, the airlines’ stock prices.
Bill Schmick is a founding partner of Onota Partners, Inc., in the Berkshires.Bill’s forecasts and opinions are purely his own and do not necessarily represent the views of Onota Partners, Inc. (OPI).None of his commentary is or should be considered investment advice.
Sharon names new Parks and Recreation Director
Ruth Epstein
Bryan Failla
SHARON – The Town of Sharon has named Torrington resident Bryan Failla as its new Parks and Recreation director, following the retirement of longtime director Matthew Andrulis-Mette, who held the position for 27 years.
Failla, 34, said the role is a natural fit, noting that he has “always been a sports guy,” while acknowledging that he has big shoes to fill.
“The community loves Matt,” Failla said. “I’m not coming in to change things – I’ll be building upon what Matt’s done.”
Failla said he plans to start by getting to know the community and its needs, adding that he enjoys working with people of all ages.
Before coming to Sharon, Failla served as an athletic director at Region 20’s Plum Hill Middle School for two years. He also spent six years in law enforcement as a police officer with the Winchester Police Department.
Failla holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he played baseball, and a master’s degree in sports administration from Arkansas State University. He said he enjoys playing golf and volunteering with the Torrington Police Athletic League (PAL).
Sharon’s Parks and Recreation Department oversees the Little Rascals summer camp, summer concerts, an annual triathlon, a summer crafts fair and senior bus trips, in addition to a variety of recreational activities.
The department will also see a staffing change beyond the leadership transition. Former director Andrulis-Mette said his previous role has been split into two separate positions: a director — a role Failla has been hired to fill — and a maintenance staff member from the town crew to oversee the athletic fields and beach.
Local author recounts how royal statue was melted into wartime bullets
Patrick L. Sullivan
Peter Vermilyea, a social studies teacher at Housatonic Valley Regional High School and author of the newly published “Litchfield County and the American Revolution,” speaks at the D.M. Hunt Library on April 4 about how Litchfield residents turned a statue of King George III into 42,088 musket balls.
FALLS VILLAGE – Litchfield County may not have been the site of major battles during the American Revolution, but its residents made their mark in other ways – including turning a statue of King George III into 42,088 bullets.
Peter Vermilyea, a social studies teacher at Housatonic Valley Regional High School and author of the newly published “Litchfield County and the American Revolution,” walked an audience through the story of Oliver Wolcott — a prominent Litchfield County citizen — and the fate of the King George statue during a talk Saturday, April 4, at the D.M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.
The statue, made of lead and covered in gilt, was erected in Manhattan’s Bowling Green on Aug. 16, 1770, to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Prince Frederick, the King’s father.
King George III was popular at the time, having signed the repeal of the hated Stamp Act.
The New York Sons of Liberty, however, saw things differently. Vermilyea said they had lobbied for a statue of William Pitt, who led the fight against the Stamp Act.
But Parliament balked at the cost, especially to honor a colonial.
So alongside the gilded equestrian statue of the king in Roman finery stood a pedestrian-standing-statue of Pitt.
“The imperial message was clear.”
That message would not last. On July 9, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud in New York.
The city was on edge anyway. The British occupied the harbor with about 32,000 troops, while George Washington and his army of roughly 20,000 shared the city with a civilian population of about 20,000.
Washington read the Declaration to the troops and assembled civilians.
The troops went back to barracks, but the civilians had other ideas.
They marched to Bowling Green and pulled down the statue of King George.
Among those watching was Litchfield’s Oliver Wolcott.
He was the son of a governor, a governor himself as well as a member of the legislature.
Vermilyea said Wolcott was a Puritan and a conservative in every sense of the word. He was the last man to approve of or join in any sort of mob action, such as destroying a statue.
Vermilyea said the American Revolution was essentially a conservative action.
The colonists had been left more or less alone by the Crown for 100 years, until the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
And the colonies had prospered.
After the French and Indian War, however, the British became far more involved in the colonies and imposed the various taxes and levies that sparked the Revolution.
Far from being radicals, the colonists “wanted to go back to 1762.”
But events were moving fast, and by April of 1776, Wolcott wrote in a letter to his wife that independence was inevitable.
“A final separation between the countries I consider as unavoidable.”
Once the statue had been toppled and broken into several big pieces, Wolcott and the sheriff of New York took charge.
Wolcott told the crowd that the statue could be melted down for musket balls in Litchfield, and the pieces were loaded into an oxcart.
The journey was not easy. Loyalists intercepted the cart and made off with about half of the lead. Still, Wolcott and the remaining fragments reached Litchfield.
In a shed in an apple orchard next to Wolcott’s home, the community got to work. The statue was reduced to 100 pieces, each weighing about 20 pounds.
Fires were built, and the lead pieces were melted in kettles and poured into molds.
Wolcott, methodical by nature, kept detailed records on who produced what.
A Mrs. Marvin produced 6,058 bullets – referred to as “cartridges,” although they were round lead balls, not modern cartridges– while a woman named Mary Ann led the effort with 10,790.
Washington later said the ammunition made from the statue had been “exceedingly useful.”
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