By Don C. Reed
In Lake Burundi, Africa, there lives a crocodile whom the locals call Gustave. (1) Twenty feet long and weighing an estimated two thousand pounds, it is said to have killed between two and three hundred people. The only good thing you can say about Gustave is that he is ugly; children are not tempted to play with him.
But what if the monster was friendly-looking, appealing to the eye?
There is a piece of legislation (the “SAVE America Act”) (2) which at first glance appears harmless. But the truth is otherwise; it is a smiling crocodile.
If SAVE becomes law, (and President Trump calls passing it his “No. 1 Priority”) millions of citizens will find it more difficult to vote. The Act is in 36 versions, including one (a Voter ID initiative) in California.
KEY POINT: President Donald J. Trump is the power behind the SAVE bills; Trump has called it “the most important bill” he will sign, and says he will not sign any other bills before it. “It will guarantee the mid-terms”, he says. (3)
If the SAVE Act wins, Trump says, “Democrats will not pass any bills for 50 years.” Look at the Senate sponsors of the Save America Act. With one exception (Henry Cuellar, Texas) they are all Republicans. You might remember Cuellar, who was pardoned by Trump for bribery.
The Save Act attacks voter’s rights from many angles: first, by making it hard to register; That first step, registering, contains a host of tricks and traps. For instance, are you a married woman? If so, before you can vote, you will almost certainly have to change your name. The name on your wedding license must be identical to the one on your birth certificate—or you cannot vote. As eight out of ten women took their husband’s name in marriage, this affects roughly 59 million women. (4)
Why does this matter? If women cannot register, they cannot vote. Since women strongly vote Democrat, think what it means for millions of their votes to be denied. This is why President Trump is so eager for the Act to pass, because it may cut off many of the Democrats’ strongest supporters.
Suppose you want to register by mail—under the SAVE Act, that would be difficult. You must come to the electoral office in person, bringing your photocopied documents. You may lose a day’s pay, plus gas is not cheap.
You will need certain forms, such as a birth certificate — do you have one? Do you know where it is? Or a passport? Those cost $165 each.
When it comes time to actually vote, you will need a government-issue identity card, like a driver’s license. This is fine, if you own a car—which millions do not.
The SAVE Act will put at risk the vote’s administrators. If they make an honest mistake, they can be sued — or put in jail for five years — or deported.
Is there a need for so much government intrusion? In a word, no. This is an extraordinarily rare crime—would you risk deportation, just for the sake of voting wrong?
How often does it actually happen?
In Utah’s “two million registered voters” was found only one instance of a non-citizen registering to vote…(5)
And the ultra-conservative “Heritage Foundation…found only 68 documented instances of non-citizens voting since the 1980s, out of over a billion ballots cast.”
— Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, School of Law, UC Berkeley, 2026
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_(crocodile)
2. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/22/text
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu59Jr3PzsI&t=13s
4. The SAVE Act: Overview and Facts.
5. https://reclaimdemocracy.org/2026-save-act-voter-suppression/
Don C. Reed is the author of four books on the California stem cell program, including most recently: Science, Politics, Stem Cells and Genes: CALIFORNIA’S WAR ON CHRONIC DISEASE, from World Scientific Publishers Inc., available at a discount from:
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12997#t=aboutBook
Visit his website at: https:www.stemcellbattles.net
Reed has also written numerous books and award-winning articles on sharks, dolphins, eels, seals and killer whales, based on 15 years as a professional diver for Marine World Africa USA. His books are available at Amazon.com.