People who want to save our democracy can breathe a sigh of release for a little while. Do you know about the controversy over the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act)? The act passed the House of Representatives several times but was stopped in the Senate when four Republicans joined with Democrats on April 23rd to vote against adding major parts of the bill to a budget reconciliation package. The amendment to add parts of the bill was defeated 48-50. Trump says the battle is not over yet and is asking his Truth Social followers to advocate for the bill. He wants to use the SAVE Act to take control of elections from each state and give it to the federal government. The SAVE Act is not about security and eligibility; it is about blocking millions of American citizens from voting. Passing the SAVE Act would change how many people vote and make it much harder for some people to vote.
How do most Americans register to vote? Presently, most people register online, by mail, or at the DMV. Only 6 percent of people register in person. If the SAVE Act went into effect, voters would need to register in person and show documents to prove they are citizens any time they update their registration. This means voters would have to show documents when they move to a new location, change their name, or change political parties. Many people assume that means showing their driver’s license as proof of identity, but that is not the only documentation required. In most cases, registering to vote would require presenting a passport or certified birth certificate along with a picture I.D. And in the case of many married women, this would also include showing a certified marriage license along with the certified birth certificate and picture I.D. In addition, election officials would be required to verify whether the documents are authentic.
Representative Chip Roy of Texas and Senator Mike Lee of Utah pushed the bill forward and stated that it would ensure election integrity and stop noncitizens from voting. Mike Lee and John Thune believe that passing the bill will help Republicans win in the 2026 midterms. All three claim that noncitizens are voting, and they hope to throw voters from certain areas off the voter rolls. Research has shown that noncitizen voting is not a problem. Utah recently completed a citizenship review at the state level and looked at more than two million registered voters. There was only one proven case of noncitizen registration and zero cases of noncitizen voting. Federal data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services showed only a .04% possibility of noncitizen registration, and when further research was done, many of those people had provided evidence of citizenship when they registered.
Today when people register to vote, they swear under penalty of perjury that they are a U.S. citizen. And state and federal databases are often used to verify citizenship. This kind of verification is often used at the DMV. If the SAVE Act went into effect, every American would have to go to an election office in person with two of the qualifying documents: a photo I.D. such as a driver’s license along with a certified birth certificate, a passport, a naturalization certificate, or a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. If the name does not match on the two documents, additional documents such as a marriage certificate could be required.
Half of Americans do not have a passport, and 69 million American women would need to show a birth certificate and a marriage license, along with their driver’s license, to prove their identity. In rural areas in the Western U.S., voters may need to drive over 200 miles to get to an election office. In some cases, the drive is over four hours. In places like Alaska and Hawaii, voters might need to fly to an office. And a quarter of young Americans under 30 would have to drive several hours to obtain documents. Young voters frequently register on college campuses, and these registration events would end since students would be unlikely to have all the required documents with them.
Some groups that would experience the most hardship include low-income Americans who cannot afford a passport and cannot afford to take time off work to go to an election office. Many older Black Americans born before the 1960s were never issued a birth certificate because they were born at home. Transgender Americans often lack IDs stating their revised name and gender. And military members and Americans living in other countries could not meet the in-person requirement.
Even though there is proof that the plan doesn’t work, Republicans are still trying to pass the bill. Both Kansas and Arizona already tried state-level proof of citizenship documents, and the courts determined that many American citizens were prevented from registering. In both states, federal courts reversed the law.
The SAVE Act includes measures that target registered U.S. citizens and allows states to remove them from the voter rolls. In a voter purge in Virginia that was based on old citizenship information, 94% of voters who are U.S. citizens were removed from the voting rolls. When they showed up to vote, they found out that they had been purged from the rolls and were no longer registered. Even though all versions of the SAVE Act contain obstacles to voting, the SAVE America Act requires states to give their voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security to check citizenship verification. It’s an attempt to give the federal government power to remove people from the voter rolls and obtain their private voter information.
Hector Sachez Barba, President of Mi Familia Vota, warned that Republicans may try to pass the SAVE Act again through reconciliation, through Trump’s Executive Orders about mail-in ballots, or by setting up approved voter lists at DHS. We must fight these attempts in the courts. We need to stay vigilant so all American citizens have the right to choose who represents them in Congress. Everyone should use vote.org to check their registration status and obtain the documents needed now to prove their identity.
Sources
https://www.nonprofitvote.org, Brian Miller, “The SAVE Act Is the Wrong Solution for a Non-Problem,” February 13, 2026.
https://bipartisanpolicy.org, Wren Orey, Matthew Weil, and Julianne Lempert, “Five Things to Know about the SAVE America Act,” February 2, 2026.
https://voteriders.org, “What Is the SAVE Act and Why Is It Dangerous for Democracy? February 12, 2026.
https://brennancenter.org, Eliza Sweren-Becker and Owen Bacskai, “New SAVE Act Bills Would Still Block Millions of Americans from Voting,” April 19, 2026.
https://democracydocket.com, Jim Saksa, “Senate Rejects Bid to Revive SAVE America Act, But the War Isn’t Over,” April 23, 2026.