Many years ago, a distant relative of mine had a problem she wanted me to fix. She was scheduled to go on a cruise to the Caribbean in a few days. She was told she needed a passport or a birth certificate. She had  neither. I had legislative connections.

She told me that she had always lived in North Carolina but had never travelled abroad. She had voted in every election. She and her husband operated a business in Raleigh for many decades and paid all their taxes .

I suggested she drive to her county of birth and get a birth certificate. She told me that courthouse had burned down about 70 years ago. She had never thought to get a delayed birth certificate. She missed  that trip.

State legislators and local government leaders who ponder the implications of the SAVE ACT might consider demands on them a few days before each election. Many constituents  don’t have a copy of their birth certificate and will  need to get it right now. Think of the married constituent whose name on her photo ID doesn’t match whatever birth certificate she has. Many women (and a few men) have four names. Some include last names from prior marriages.

I pulled out my three government issued photo IDs: my passport, driver’s license and my military ID from 1974. None of them are identical to what is on my birth certificate. None are identical to the name on my Board of Election voter card.

If the proof of citizenship requirement of the SAVE ACT is not scrapped tens of thousands of real citizens will not be allowed to vote in 2026. There will be sufficient numbers of real challenges that  could actually affect U.S. elections in enough states to throw Congress into the Briar Patch. Maybe that is the purpose!

Paul “Skip” Stam, served 16 years In the N.C. House of Representative. The last ten as first Republican Leader and then Speaker Pro Tem