Last Tuesday, I went to vote as usual. I handed over my ID, and the system flagged me. My license and registration did not match. My license included my married name, but my voter record showed only my maiden name.

This should not have happened. I have voted multiple times under my married name. I have updated my registration three separate times in the past four years, each time confirming my information was current. Yet today, the system reverted to an older record.

When I signed my name, the system flagged another mismatch. The signature they had on file wasn’t from my most recent license or even the one before that. It came from two licenses ago, meaning my registration record was from after 2022 but before 2023 — the period before I officially changed my name.

Thankfully, the poll worker who reviewed my case was confident enough to verify that I was who I said I was and allowed me to vote. But what if she hadn’t? What if I had been new to the area or lacked the paperwork to prove my name history?

Now imagine someone who doesn’t have my advantages. What if English isn’t their first language? What if they changed their name because of marriage, adoption, or gender transition? What if they work two jobs and rely on public transportation? SB 153 would make it much easier for those voters to be rejected, delayed, or forced into a system that makes it even harder for their ballot to count. I'm sure some people who also had issues at the polls were ultimately turned away.

I believe deeply in the right to vote. But belief is not enough. Access matters just as much. If we want our democracy to reflect all of us, then every eligible voter must be able to cast a ballot that counts. I think a war veteran who is homeless deserves to have as much of a vote as a suburban grandma who votes with her church. I think a gun owner should have an equal vote to someone who wants them banned. Laws that place barriers to voting are, in my opinion, an integral part of the destruction of democracy.