Republican lawmakers have reintroduced the SAVE Act, and it could make voting harder for millions of Americans.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act requires proof of citizenship — via in-person documentation — when registering to vote or updating voter registration information.
Republicans claim the legislation would improve election security, but it is already illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote. Across the country, there are numerous requirements in place to check a voter’s citizenship status, such as providing a Social Security number to register, matching voter rolls to federal data, and in states like North Carolina, requiring voter identification at the polls.
The SAVE Act would not allow proof of name change or a marriage certificate as acceptable proof of identity, impacting anyone with birth certificates that don’t match their current legal names. Additionally, driver’s licenses and military IDs—including REAL IDs— would not be sufficient forms of documentation to prove citizenship. Election workers could face 5 years in prison for helping register voters who lack required documentation, even if that citizen is eligible to vote.
Critics believe the SAVE Act poses unnecessary and significant barriers to vote for historically disenfranchised communities. Women and people of color are far less likely to have access to proof of citizenship documents, birth certificates, and passports compared to other groups. As many as 69 million women who have changed their last name to match their spouse do not have birth certificates that match their legal names.
Acquiring such documentation presents significant financial and logistical barriers. In North Carolina, a birth certificate request can cost $60 and take as long as 3 months to arrive. Passports cost $165 and can take 10 weeks to arrive.
The in-person documentation requirement would also eliminate many popular registration methods such as registration by mail, voter registration drives, online voter registration, and automatic voter registration.
Half of American citizens do not possess a passport, and more than 9% of American citizens (21.3 million people) of voting age don’t have proof of citizenship at hand.
