The Save Act
The SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) has 5 versions and is meant to assure no noncitizen can vote in federal elections. Read the text of the latest bill here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/s1383/text. This bill passed the House on Feb 11, but has not yet been put forward for a vote in the Senate.
All versions would create unnecessary obstacles for millions of eligible Americans trying to register to vote.
This voter suppression legislation would
- require every voter to show proof of citizenship, like a passport or original birth certificate bearing their current legal name, when registering to vote in federal elections.
- eliminate or upend most popular methods of voter registration, including online and mail-in voter registration, voter registration drives and automatic voter registration because these bills would require showing proof of citizenship in person.
- require voters who have moved to present proof of citizenship at an elections office
- require a citizen to provide this documentation if their citizenship is put in doubt by voter reviews.
- add criminal penalties for election officials if they register a person to vote who has not met the bill’s proof of citizenship requirement
- give private individuals and groups the ability to file civil lawsuits against election officials for registering people who have not shown proof of citizenship.
- require states to regularly submit their voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security.
take effect immediately upon enactment.
From Indivisible (https://indivisible.org/campaigns/stop-save/):
If passed, these bills would disproportionately impact:
- Married women and others who have changed their last names, many of whom don’t have birth certificates matching their legal name
- Naturalized citizens who could face additional barriers and intimidation
- Trans and nonbinary people
- Rural Americans who would no longer have access to online and mail-in voting
- Military members, tribal citizens, and working-class Americans, who may not have easy access to these documents
- And others!
From 5calls.org (https://5calls.org/issue/save-act-voter-suppression/):
Millions of Americans don’t have easy access to the required documents.
- More than 21.3 million Americans lack immediate access to documentary proof of citizenship.
- More than 140 million Americans do not have a passport, and elderly Americans are one of the demographic groups least likely to have one.
- 69 million women who have taken their spouse’s last name do not have a birth certificate that matches their legal name.
- Similarly, transgender people who change their name to reflect their gender identity may be denied new passports and become ineligible to register.
- Disabled people are already much more likely to encounter a difficulty while voting compared to a nondisabled voter; more stringent requirements will just make this worse.
- Citizens of color are three times more likely than white citizens to lack documents such as birth certificates, passports, naturalization certificates, or certificates of citizenship.
- An in-person registration requirement would prevent military members serving abroad from easily registering to vote.
Reality check–
Similar requirements in Arizona and Kansas blocked tens of thousands of citizens from registering. Kansas’s show-your-papers policy was struck down as unconstitutional and recently prompted criticism even from Kansas’s Republican secretary of state.
Contrary to what some have suggested, the SAVE Act does not contain a meaningful failsafe provision that would allow those without physical documentation to register. While the bill includes a provision requiring states to establish a failsafe process for those without citizenship documents to demonstrate their citizenship through “other evidence” and swearing to an affidavit, that option is vague and severely undercut by another provision making it a crime for election officials to register any applicant who does not “present documentary proof of United States citizenship.” Many election officials would be wary of risking criminal prosecution for running afoul of this provision.
All available evidence, including from the Trump administration itself, indicates that only American citizens vote and the exceptions are vanishingly rare. States that have combed through their voter rolls looking for illegally cast votes — like Louisiana and Utah did recently — have repeatedly confirmed that fact.
It is already against the law for a noncitizen to register to vote or to vote.
- The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires states to use a common voter form, including confirming that the applicant is a citizen under penalty of perjury.
- Noncitizens who register often do so by mistake and very rarely cast a ballot. The stakes of voting as a non-U.S. citizen, even unintentionally, are very high. Punishments include prison time and possible deportation.
Take action:
With Indivisible:
Call: https://indivisible.org/actions/stop-save-senate/
Email: https://act.indivisible.org/sign/stop-gops-new-voter-suppression-legislation/
Call with 5calls.org: https://5calls.org/issue/save-act-voter-suppression/
Write with League of Women Voters: https://www.lwv.org/save-act
Along with Indivisible and 5calls.org the above information is taken from:
Brennan Center (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-save-act-bills-would-still-block-millions-americans-voting):
CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/politics/whats-in-the-save-america-act
Read additional great info from the League of Women Voters: https://www.lwv.org/blog/safeguard-american-voter-eligibility-save-act-trick
