To the editor:

Tell Congress: America’s elections don’t need “saving.” It’s already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. The conservative Heritage Foundation’s database shows only 68 cases of noncitizen voting over 40 years. That’s one in a million voters (0.0001%).

Are you concerned about voting? Become a poll worker. I did. New York state will train and pay you.

But if Congress slaps on new requirements, the state will have to redo our voting system: rewrite, test, train, audit, translate, reprint, distribute. Who pays for this? We do. Why? For no good reason.

As a volunteer, I registered high school and college students. It’s simple — provide driver’s license, last four digits of social security number, or check the box stating you don’t have either. On New York state forms, every signer swears “I am a citizen” of the U.S.

Congress’s “Save America” and several similar acts would require a passport or certified birth certificate to register to vote. Don’t tell me this is easy. How many 18-year-olds in the North Country have passports? Over half of Americans don’t. How many parents have and would mail certified birth certificates to help their young adult children register?

Our daughter and I drove an hour to Malone to get driver’s licenses with REAL ID. Yes, they can get us airplane seats or a beer. No, they don’t say “citizen.” So New Yorkers couldn’t use their REAL IDs to register to vote IF the U.S. Senate passes this dumb Act.

My sisters, niece, friends — over half of adult American women — changed their names when they married. Their birth certificates don’t match their legal names. To register to vote, they’d have to also provide a marriage certificate or go to an election office (during work hours) to sign an affidavit.

This gets worse for older voters. When my mom moved across the country, re-registering was easy. No one took time off work. She voted by mail from her nursing home. To vote by mail, this Act requires first a trip to an election office with proof of citizenship.

For many of us who vote in person, showing ID at the voting booth is a no-brainer. Not for the 25% of New Yorkers with no driver’s license. Student IDs wouldn’t work. My sister in New York City voted for years before getting her license. Our mom stopped driving and kept voting after her license expired.

This act and similar versions would create unneeded obstacles for American voters and a costly new tangle of voting rules for states to implement. Moreover, it would require states to send their lists of eligible voters to Homeland Security. All to solve a made-up problem. Supposedly to protect us from the measly one to two people per year voting as non-citizens?

Congress should fix housing, jobs, the cost of food and medical care.

Don’t mess with voting! If it ain’t broke…

Alison B. King

Vermontville