On April 10, 2025 the House of the 119th Congress passed the so-called SAVE Act. Complete text can be found here.
The ostensible purpose of this act is to prevent non-citizens from voting in federal elections. The real purpose may be inferred from the act’s presentation by a Texas Republican.
Because we already have laws aimed at preventing non-citizens from voting. Despite Republicans yapping about “illegal immigrants” thronging to the polls, in all the years since they started yapping, vanishingly few ballots have actually been thrown out. Because this is not a real problem. As a recent commentator said, the SAVE Act is a solution in search of a problem
It is also a blatant attack on voting rights, and states’ rights, in the US.
As of June 2024, 22 states and the District of Columbia allowed same-day voter registration. That is, you could walk into a polling place and register to vote on election day. In addition, 24 states had automatic voter registration systems, in which certain interactions with state government agencies such the department of motor vehicles involved registration by default; you had to specifically opt out of registering to vote. If you submitted a change of address through the Post Office, that information was provided to the voting registry.
At the moment, a majority of states – 42 of them, in fact – allow online registration. To no one’s surprise, Texas, busily enacting other restrictions on the civil and human rights of women and LGBTQ+ people, is not on that list. The SAVE Act wants the whole country to be like Texas.
Every state currently allows voter registration by mail. But the SAVE Act lays out a new list of voter ID requirements, which would make it impossible to register by mail unless you are willing to send, through the mail, your private and personal identification documents – including your birth certificate. Anybody feel like that’s a great idea? We’re already seeing stories of trans Americans being required to submit original documents, which then disappear into the system, with their passport renewals.
Basically, if you can’t drive yourself to a voter registry office, you won’t be able to register to vote.
The SAVE Act is an attempt to amend (undercut) the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Complete text can be found here. Here’s what that Act said about its purpose:
Here's what the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 said about voter ID:
And here’s what the SAVE Act says:
“(b) Requiring applicants to present documentary proof of United States citizenship.—Under any method of voter registration in a State, the State shall not accept and process an application to register to vote in an election for Federal office unless the applicant presents documentary proof of United States citizenship with the application.”.
Here’s the full text of the SAVE Act concerning documentary proof:
“(b) Documentary proof of United States citizenship.—As used in this Act, the term ‘documentary proof of United States citizenship’ means, with respect to an applicant for voter registration, any of the following:
“(1) A form of identification issued consistent with the requirements of the REAL ID Act of 2005 that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States.
“(2) A valid United States passport.
“(3) The applicant's official United States military identification card, together with a United States military record of service showing that the applicant's place of birth was in the United States.
“(4) A valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States.
“(5) A valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government other than an identification described in paragraphs (1) through (4), but only if presented together with one or more of the following:
“(A) A certified birth certificate issued by a State, a unit of local government in a State, or a Tribal government which—
“(i) was issued by the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government in which the applicant was born;
“(ii) was filed with the office responsible for keeping vital records in the State;
“(iii) includes the full name, date of birth, and place of birth of the applicant;
“(iv) lists the full names of one or both of the parents of the applicant;
“(v) has the signature of an individual who is authorized to sign birth certificates on behalf of the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government in which the applicant was born;
“(vi) includes the date that the certificate was filed with the office responsible for keeping vital records in the State; and
“(vii) has the seal of the State, unit of local government, or Tribal government that issued the birth certificate.
“(B) An extract from a United States hospital Record of Birth created at the time of the applicant's birth which indicates that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States.
“(C) A final adoption decree showing the applicant’s name and that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States.
“(D) A Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a citizen of the United States or a certification of the applicant’s Report of Birth of a United States citizen issued by the Secretary of State.
“(E) A Naturalization Certificate or Certificate of Citizenship issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security or any other document or method of proof of United States citizenship issued by the Federal government pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“(F) An American Indian Card issued by the Department of Homeland Security with the classification ‘KIC’.”.
What does this mean?
If a legal citizen doesn’t have a state-issued birth certificate, they can go to the voter registry with everything they do have, submit a sworn affidavit, and cross their fingers that the person they’re dealing with actually wants to protect people’s right to vote. But the SAVE Act proposes criminal penalties for registry staff who accidentally approve someone that DHS (or whoever) later determines shouldn’t have the right to vote. So are they likely to err on the side of believing a citizen who has everything but that one document, or are they likely to say Nope, sorry, no vote for you?
Plus, notice anything else missing in that list?
How about a marriage certificate in which one party changed their name?
How about any kind of legal name change document?
Eight out of ten women in the US change their name after marriage. I did myself. I happen to have a Real ID and a passport, but if the SAVE Act passes the Senate and is upheld by the courts, I may lose my right to vote, along with the other 69 million American women who’ve changed their names.
Because the name on my Real ID driver’s license issued in California isn’t the same as the name on my birth certificate, that Real ID doesn’t include my place of birth, and it doesn’t state that I’m a citizen. I can take that and my passport and my birth certificate and my marriage certificate to the voter registry, but all four of those documents together don’t add up to the requirements listed in the SAVE Act.
Imagine if I were a trans person, who’d met every requirement for a new driver’s license, Real ID, or passport; who’s registered a legal name change; whose birth certificate has been amended. I would not be able to register to vote, because the SAVE Act wants the whole US to be Texas, and according to Texas Republicans, transgender identity is felony fraud.
A top priority after moving to a new state will be getting a new Real ID – if I can – and then registering to vote. Because the MAGA Republicans are trying to prevent people from voting. They’ve been closing polling places, intimidating voters, and purging voter rolls. In North Carolina right now, they’re trying to invalidate 60,000 ballots because their candidate didn’t win a Supreme Court contest.
Online, automatic, and by-mail options will effectively be banned if the SAVE Act passes the Senate without amendment, and if the courts allow it to stand. Because you can be sure that state attorneys general will immediately file suit to block implementation of this legislation.
Back in 1993, online registration wasn’t a thing, but registration by mail was – and so was registration simultaneous with application for a driver’s license. States couldn’t require any additional information. An application made this way was a legal document requiring certain data and a sworn statement that falsification constituted perjury.
This system has worked well. There has not been an epidemic of voter fraud. Republications – it’s nearly always Republicans – have made various allegations of systemic and widespread voter fraud in numerous elections; not one of those allegations has ever been proven. The very rare cases of improper or illegal ballots have all been caught by the systems currently in place. Where a voter’s information, such as address, had changed, they were permitted to update it as late as the day of an election. The act of 1993 was intended to protect voting rights.
The SAVE Act, on the other hand, is intended to restrict voting rights. It will require the federal and all the state governments to completely rewrite their information pages and forms, to completely retrain their voting registry staffers, and to re-verify all existing voter registrations. The Act doesn’t call for any appropriation of funds for this purpose. What that means: the change will percolate slowly, the help lines will be jammed, and for a long time, maybe forever – again, if the Act passes without amendments and if the courts uphold it – many Americans who are now properly registered voters will not be able to vote again.
The chaos goblin told his true believers that “we might never have to have an election again.” The SAVE Act has no purpose except to make that happen. And four House Democrats voted in support: Jared Golden (ME), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D.C.), Henry Cuellar (TX) and Ed Case (HI). Let’s make sure people in their states know that these Democrats would rather suck up to MAGA than protect voters.
More Commentary on the SAVE Act: