House Republicans are teeing up a vote on the SAVE Act as soon as next week, a bill to change voter registration policies that voting-rights advocates warn could disenfranchise tens of millions of eligible voters—with one expert even calling it “one of the worst voting laws in congressional history.”
The bill is supported by the Heritage Foundation's advocacy arm and conservative groups led by former Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell that work to pass restrictive election laws in states. If passed again by the House—as it was last year in a July 2024 vote of 221-198, with no Republican dissenters—the bill would be sent to the now GOP-controlled Senate.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act (H.R. 22), would require that citizens registering to vote or updating their registration information appear in-person to present documentary proof of citizenship. For the vast majority of Americans, this would require presenting a passport or birth certificate, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice. A Brennan Center analysis found that more than 21 million citizens don’t have these documents available—more than 9 percent of eligible voters—and that tens of millions of voters would routinely run into the law’s restrictions when updating their address after moving, or re-registering between elections.
The bill would allow “Enhanced Drivers Licenses” that show proof of citizenship to be used for voter registration, but only five states—Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington—currently offer them. Most “Real ID”-compliant documents would not be accepted under the law, according to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, because they generally do not state the holder is a citizen. Neither would most military or tribal IDs.
The nonprofit Campaign Legal Center and other groups flag that people of color, young people, elderly people, and married people who have changed their names are more likely to lack access to their passport or birth certificate. Around 69 million American women who changed their names in marriage do not have a birth certificate that could be used as proof, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP). Socioeconomic differences exacerbate the bill’s problems: only 1 in 5 Americans with income below $50,000 have a valid passport, CAP says.
