By Mary Ellen Klas / Bloomberg Opinion
Listen closely to the arguments of the House Republicans pushing the so-called “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act” and you realize they aren’t interested in solving the problem the bill purports to address: non-citizens voting in federal elections.
If you take the proponents of the bill at their word — that the measure is needed “to increase integrity of elections” because “non-citizen voting decreases confidence in our elections” — you’d expect a targeted proposal aimed at increasing enforcement with the goal of curbing the small percentage of non-citizen votes cast in any election.
Instead, the SAVE Act uses a bazooka to kill a gnat. It prohibits state election officials from registering anyone to vote in federal elections unless the person “provides documentary proof of United States citizenship” and produces, in person, either a passport or birth certificate. The House voted 220 to 208 to support the bill on April 10, with five Democrats joining Republicans.
The concept is politically popular. In 2024 and 2022, Gallup polls found majorities of both Democratic and Republican voters support requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote for the first time. Among Republican voters, support was nearly unanimous.
But the SAVE Act’s approach would disenfranchise large swaths of voters. Its new hurdles could prevent millions of people from registering to vote. Data show that most of them would be married women, people living in rural areas or voters serving in the armed forces; groups that, incidentally, tend to vote for Republicans.
The bill is far more effective as political theater, allowing the GOP’s anti-immigration movement to churn out new headlines and painting Democrats as favoring open borders and voter fraud.
Under current federal law, a person must provide either the last four digits of their Social Security number or their driver’s license number on a voter registration application so that election officials can verify their identity and eligibility to vote. Under the SAVE Act, the burden of proving citizenship shifts from the government to the citizen. Anyone who is already legally registered to vote is grandfathered in, but if a voter decides to move and update their voter registration, or a new voter wants to register, that’s when they’ll have to dig out their citizenship documents.
If you’ve lost your birth certificate, replacing it can be time-consuming. Fees range from $7 to $70, depending on the state. Americans whose birth certificates don’t match their driver’s license will have to either obtain a marriage certificate or name-change documents to prove their identity. A survey from the Pew Research Center found 84 percent of married American women today have changed their surname.
As for using a passport, only half of all American citizens have one, according to statements and data released by the U.S. Department of State. Getting one costs a minimum of $130.
And that’s not the end of the red tape the legislation introduces. People living in rural areas would no longer be allowed to register to vote online under the bill, as is currently allowed in in 42 states, but would be required to register in person. Members of the armed forces won’t be able to register to vote while deployed overseas. And the proposal targets for elimination all vote by mail, an option that a majority of Americans support.
The bill leaves it up to the states to carve out special conditions to allow voters to prove they are who they say they are. But there’s no requirement that states make exceptions and no deadline for any exceptions to be in place before the 2026 midterm elections.
Wisconsin Republican Congressman Bryan Steil argued during House debate that if states require people to show ID to buy a six-pack of beer, why can’t government require them to show proof of citizenship to register to vote? It’s a good rhetorical point, but the SAVE Act doesn’t ask people for their driver’s license or photo ID. It asks for proofs of citizenship that many Americans would find onerous to access.
The measure is also redundant. Since 1996, federal law has made it a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, for non-citizens to register to vote or cast a ballot in federal elections. States already have strict voter registration requirements and rely on citizenship data from the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to verify an individual’s eligibility to cast a ballot. And prosecutors have the authority to both investigate and punish violators. As a result, instances of non-citizens registering to vote or voting have been demonstrably infrequent.
There’s no guarantee the SAVE Act will get a hearing in the U.S. Senate. Democrats have killed it in the past and it’s unlikely to get the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.
Nevertheless, Republicans are getting their headlines. “Dems fight bill to stop illegal immigrant voting despite polls showing voter support,’’ read the Fox News headline on top of a story about the House’s passage of the bill.
A legislative defeat can still be a political win; and that’s likely what this is all about. Most Americans would prefer Congress to fix real problems, not create more pointless red tape.
Mary Ellen Klas is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, she has covered politics and government for more than three decades.
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