Many of us talk abstractly about our democracy, but let’s be clear: voting is about power.

The power to have a say in the policies that affect your life — your access to health care, or clean water, or a good education. The power to determine your future. The power to choose your president.

I’ve spent the better part of my career working to make our democracy realize its full potential — creating a society where people truly shape their own lives and futures. I’ve run elections for the 430,000 voters in Jefferson County, I’ve taught election law at Denver University, I’ve had a hand in writing a number of Colorado’s election laws, and in 2020, I ran the state’s largest nonpartisan election protection effort. I spend time in the minutia of our democracy and in the theory of it. So I know with certainty our democracy does not exist unless all Americans have the right and the power to vote.

That’s why voting rights advocates in Colorado have fought to create one of the best election systems in the country. Colorado’s Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act of 2013 mandated the mailing of ballots to all active registered voters and marked the beginning of the state’s dramatic rise in voter turnout. Twelve years later, our voters trust our mail ballot system because it is safe, efficient and reliable. We have laws protecting same-day registration, online voter registration and registration by mail, all of which are secure and convenient.

Now it’s all at risk.

Last July, then-candidate Donald Trump famously told his supporters, “You won’t have to vote anymore,” once he was elected. Since then, we’ve been talking about election policy in increasingly concerning ways both locally and nationally. Since Colorado’s legislative session began less than three months ago, voting rights champions have already had to fight off bills to aggressively cancel voters off our voting rolls and limit voting rights in other ways.

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Nationally, Congress is currently considering the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act which, despite its name, has nothing to do with protecting elections. Instead, it’s a direct assault on voting rights, designed to make it harder, if not impossible, for millions of eligible Americans to vote. 

The SAVE Act aims to force all voter registration to be done in-person, and that includes updates to your address if you move. It would also disrupt secure automatic voter registration at our DMVs, which Colorado passed and implemented in 2019. 

And then there’s this week’s executive order, which parrots much of the SAVE Act’s voter suppression goals. Both attempt to override the National Voter Registration Act to require all voters to provide proof of citizenship that many of us don’t have. Up to 34% of all voting-age women in the U.S. don’t have a citizenship document (such as a birth certificate or passport) in their current legal name. In fact, according to research from the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 9% of all eligible voters — more than 20 million people — don’t have immediate access to documentary proof of citizenship. That means millions of American citizens would be forced to jump through bureaucratic hoops to retain their right to vote.

Make no mistake: the SAVE Act, the president’s March 25 executive order, and any local attempts at restricting voting rights are about stripping power from the people and dismantling our democracy. 

Our democracy can be fragile and we must protect it. We must protect it from the SAVE Act, from the president’s power-grab of an executive order, and from related legislation here in Colorado. Now is not the time to bury our heads in the sand and abdicate our responsibility… and our power. 

We can protect elections without disenfranchising people. 

As the first Latina clerk and recorder in Jefferson County, I know exactly what’s at stake. I’ve spent my career working to make elections more secure and more accessible, so I know voter suppression when I see it.

We need our representatives in Congress to stand up for our democracy and oppose the SAVE Act. We need our state leaders to challenge the executive order’s lawfulness and reject any local attempts to make voting more difficult. And we need voters to make their voice heard in every election. Because that’s exactly what they’re afraid of.

Voting rights are the foundation of all other rights. Our leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, must ensure every eligible voter — no matter their name, their party affiliation, their background, or their bank account — can make their voice heard. Protecting our democracy doesn’t just mean ensuring elections happen. Protecting our democracy means ensuring the system is fair, that every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot, and that we don’t allow voter suppression to masquerade as “election security.”

Amanda Gonzalez is Jefferson County clerk and recorder.