(NewsNation) — Voters would be required to provide proof of U.S. citizenship under the SAVE Act, a proposal lawmakers will consider this week.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act passed the House last year but never went to a vote in the U.S. Senate. But with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, the proposed bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, faces fewer obstacles to becoming law.
Pentagon changes Fort Liberty’s name back to Fort Bragg
Voting by non-citizens is already illegal in all state and federal elections, and is reportedly rare. But proponents argue it ensures the integrity of federal elections.
Documents Americans would need to register to vote under SAVE Act
Until now, Americans have been able to use a valid driver’s license or state ID to register to vote in some states.
Under the SAVE Act, all U.S. voters would be required to provide either a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate, naturalization papers, military ID and service record, REAL ID, a government-issued photo ID that displays U.S. citizenship or a government-issued photo ID that does not include citizenship proof and a valid secondary document.
The Brennan Center study found that 9% of Americans do not have these documents readily available, typically in a safe deposit box or at another family member’s home.
Voters cast their ballots at the Bronx County Supreme Court in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
At least 3.8 million people said their documents were either lost, destroyed or stolen.
Producing the required documents would become even more difficult for people of color and, married people who have changed their legal name, according to the Campaign Legal Center.
The Brennan Center reported more than 8% of self-identifying Americans don’t have citizenship paperwork readily available. That rate jumped to 11% for Americans of color.
Would the SAVE Act end online and mail-in voter registration?
Michael Kang, a professor at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, told NewsNation that he sees the SAVE Act as an unnecessary “overreach” by Republicans.
Kang said that no one is questioning the requirement of citizenship for voting. But Kang believes Roy’s bill creates administrative hurdles to many citizens who are eligible to vote when there is “very little evidence” such a law is needed due to low numbers of proven voter fraud.
4 FEMA workers fired for paying NYC for hotels to house migrants
The bill could discourage Americans from voting, including those who typically cast ballots through the mail or online, the Northwestern professor added. Under Roy’s bill, proposed voters would be required to present documentation in person.
In 2022, more than 7 million Americans registered to vote by mail while another 11 million registered to vote online, the Campaign Legal Center reported.
“It is true that you don’t have to present evidence of citizenship, but the systems we have in place that sort of check in on the back end have proved pretty good,” Kang told NewsNation. “I understand why in theory, this documentation requirement makes sense …. but in practice, it’s quite a different proposition.”
Is the SAVE Act needed?
A law passed in 1996 requires voters to be U.S. citizens to participate in elections for president or members of Congress. Violators can face up to a year in prison, fined or even deported if they are convicted of violating the law. When registering to vote, residents are confirming under the penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens.
President Donald Trump proposed one-day voting with paper ballots, voter ID and proof of citizenship in the days leading up to the 2024 election.
FILE — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger attends the National Association of Secretaries of State winter meeting, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, in Washington. A site unveiled by the Republican Raffensperger on Monday, July 29, 2024, allows people to cancel voter registrations more easily, but a glitch briefly displayed personal information of voters. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, file)
The New York Times, citing Brennan Center data, showed that voting officials in 42 jurisdictions reported about 30 incidents of non-citizen voting out of 23.5 million votes that were cast (0.0001%) in the 2016 election.
House Oversight Committee announces ‘disclosure’ task force
The Washington Post reported that a federal judge found in 2018 that at most, 39 non-citizens were placed on voter rolls in 19 years.
In Georgia, the state’s secretary of state reported in 2024 that 20 non-citizens were listed on its rolls of 8.2 million voters.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reported that between 1997 and 2022, 1,634 “potential non-citizens” had attempted to vote there. The Associated Press reported that those residents were flagged by state election officials but that none of them were registered to vote.
A University of St. Thomas Law School study found that three non-citizens were convicted of unlawful voting or unlawful voter registration between 2015 and 2024 in the state of Minnesota. In that time, more than 13.4 million ballots were cast in the state.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that more than 6,500 potential non-citizens had been removed from the state’s voting rolls — which includes almost 18 million voters since 2021 — including 1,930 that had a voting history in Texas, AP reported.
In Alabama, Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen announced in 2024 that 3,251 people who had previously been identified as non-citizens by the federal government had been moved to non-active status, the AP reported.
Roy, in announcing that he was re-introducing the SAVE Act, said that the bill is necessary to “ensure that our elections and our sovereignty cannot be hijacked and influenced by foreign nationals who have no business voting in this country.”
Roy maintains that millions of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally remain in the country and have been allowed to register to vote in federal elections, making his bill necessary.
However, others suggest that while ensuring honest elections is the goal of the proposed bill, the standard by which the law would make that a reality would bring hardships for many.
“Everyone likes it in theory,” said Stephen Richer, a Republican who helped run elections for four years for Maricopa County, Arizona, told the Post. “But then you start telling people that they have to upload their passports or their birth certificate and you might start frustrating some people.”
