There’s a new bill in Congress around voting rights, and depending on who you ask, it’s either protecting democracy or straight-up voter suppression.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act wants to require documentary proof of citizenship before registering to vote. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, not really.
What the SAVE Act Actually Does
Right now, when you register to vote, you swear under penalty of perjury that you’re a U.S. citizen. The SAVE Act would change that, forcing people to provide a passport, birth certificate, or a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license to prove their citizenship before they can register.
Supporters, like Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), say this is just common sense—only citizens should vote. But here’s the problem: voting as a noncitizen is already illegal, and there’s almost zero evidence that it’s happening at any meaningful scale.
How Big of a Problem Is Noncitizen Voting?
If you listen to some politicians, you’d think there are millions of undocumented immigrants sneaking into polling places every election. But the actual data tells a different story.
- A study of the 2016 election (when Trump claimed 3 million undocumented immigrants voted) found only 30 cases of suspected noncitizen voting—nationwide.
- The risks of voting illegally are huge—prison time, fines, and deportation. Most noncitizens don’t even try.
- States already have ways to confirm citizenship. The National Voter Registration Act already requires voters to affirm their citizenship under oath.
So, is this bill fixing a problem that doesn’t really exist?
Why Voting Rights Groups Are Sounding the Alarm
Here’s where things get tricky. Voting rights organizations are warning that this bill could block millions of legal voters who don’t have easy access to the right documents.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 9% of voting-age Americans (that’s 21.3 million people!) don’t have proof of citizenship readily available. That includes:
- Elderly voters who were born at home before birth certificates were standard.
- Young voters who don’t have passports or updated IDs.
- Married women who changed their last names and now have mismatched documents.
- People of color and low-income Americans, who statistically have a harder time accessing vital records.
And since the bill would effectively kill mail-in voter registration, anyone without these documents would need to go in person to a government office to sort it out—which is easier said than done.
Could the SAVE Act Even Pass?
The House already voted on it once back in July 2024, with five Democrats joining 216 Republicans in favor. But here’s the thing: it’s got almost no chance in the Senate.
For this bill to make it through, at least seven Democrats would have to flip, and that’s highly unlikely. However, with some Democrats moving toward tougher voting regulations after their 2024 election losses, nothing is impossible.
The bill could come up for a vote again soon, but unless the political landscape shifts drastically, it probably won’t become law. Still, the debate isn’t going anywhere. Expect more bills like this in the future as the battle over voting rights continues.
At the end of the day, this bill asks one big question: Is it about election security or making it harder for people to vote? That’s the real debate.
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