We are calling on Congress to reject the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, H.R. 22, which could go directly to a House floor vote this month as it is one of 12 bills identified for fast tracking. A companion bill, S.128, has also been filed in the Senate where it would likely need to overcome the filibuster. This bill, on its surface, requires proof of citizenship for registering to vote in any and all federal elections. However, the implementation of the law would have dramatic effects on our work and the communities we serve.
While it is reasonable to prevent non-citizens from voting, existing law already does that. All federal voter registration forms include a checkbox requiring registrants to positively affirm citizenship. Violating that is punishable and instances of non-citizens voting is exceedingly rare. The issue with the SAVE Act is that the bill would require all voters to provide in person, documentary proof of citizenship – a passport or birth certificate (with a photo ID) in most cases – anytime they register or update their registration. A Real ID would not be acceptable, nor would military IDs, without accompanying documentation like a birth certificate.
Before we get into the discriminatory impact it would have on voters and the tens of millions who could be barred from voting, it’s important to note the impact on the work of nonprofits doing nonpartisan voter registration work.
- The SAVE Act would effectively be the end of all third party voter registration drives. Since only a government official can review and accept the proof of citizenship, third party groups like ours would no longer be able to collect voter registration forms. Additionally, because online voter registration would also come to an end (see below), nonprofits would not have the option of using tablets at registration tables or otherwise pointing people to state voter registration portals.
- The SAVE Act would effectively end online voter registration since it requires documentary proof be presented in person. This would render the online voter registration systems currently running in 42 states useless, forcing election officials to revert to more far more costly and labor-intensive in-person registration.
The two impacts above would radically upend the work on nonprofits doing voter registration across the nation. The most we would be able to do is talk about the importance of registering, educate voters about what documents they would need, then send people to their local election office to actually register in person. Millions would simply not register.
The SAVE Act would also overwhelm election officials, leading to long lines for voters and dramatically increased costs for state and local governments. As of 2022, only 5.9% of voters registered to vote in person at election offices. While 55% of registrations are collected through motor vehicle departments, the vast majority of states now do license renewals online. All registrations currently collected online, whether through a motor vehicle department or state election’s office, or by mail, would now have to be done in person. Election officials on both sides of the aisle have serious concerns about this as an unfunded mandate.
Then there is the highly discriminatory impact of the law on voters, disenfranchising tens of millions of eligible citizens.
- Both income and education level are major factors determining whether or not someone has a passport. Voters with higher incomes and more education are far more likely to have a passport. People with household incomes over $100K are three times as likely to have a current passport as those with incomes below $50,000. Residents of northeast and west coast states are more likely to have passports than others.
- Birth certificate requirements, even if voters can find them, are also problematic. People could be barred from voting because of birth certificate name mis-matches if they took their spouse’s name or changed their name for other reasons. Among the various groups impacted, as many as 69 million American women do not have a birth certificate with their legal name on it.
- The in-person requirement for presenting the documents will be a barrier to those with limited access to transportation. Rural voters would be especially challenged. Frequent movers will also be faced with the added burden of providing these documents in person every time they move. Many people simply won’t bother and become unregistered, non-voters.
- There are the many Americans, including lower-income individuals, younger first-time voters, and new citizen voters, who rely on third party registration drives to bring them into the system that has otherwise ignored them.
Even if the documents could be submitted online, over 21 million otherwise eligible American voters don’t have these proof of citizenship documents readily available. In the end, tens of millions of eligible American citizens who don’t have access to the required documents or can’t get to a government office in person would be unable to vote – all to prevent an exceedingly small number of non-citizens, a few dozen perhaps, from voting.
Ask your member of Congress to vote NO on the SAVE Act. Then RSVP for our 3/19 webinar “On the Radar: The SAVE Act, State Laws, & Other Policies Impacting Nonprofits”
And don’t forget to spread the word about the SAVE Act and ask those in your network to do the same.
Additional Resources:
- Summary of the SAVE Act from the Brennan Center
- Summary of SAVE Act from the Center for American Progress
- Bipartisan Policy Center on the SAVE Act
- Text of SAVE Act as filed in the House of Representatives
Notes
The text of the bill includes other proofs of citizenship that do not in practice exist, including a “REAL ID Act of 2005 that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States.” Citizenship is not a requirement for the REAL ID and nowhere on the REAL ID does it indicate one’s citizenship status. It also lists “A valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States.” State Driver’s Licenses, the most common form of government-issued photo ID, do not list “place of birth.” What remains in the bill is the requirement to provide either a passport or a birth certificate (or naturalization documentation, etc.) in conjunction with a photo ID. Military IDs, like state Drivers License, must be accompanied by proof of US birth.
The text of the bill makes no clear allowance for documents to be submitted digitally online or as copies via mail. The text reads that potential voters must “present” documentary proof of citizenship. It does not say attach, include, or upload. While there is no reference to online voter registration, there is a section that references mail-in registration. It states that for any mail-in registration to be valid, the voter must subsequently go “in person” to present the documentary proof of citizenship before the mail-in registration can be effective, which renders the mail-in registration meaningless. Absent text it the bill to the contrary, any online registration would almost certainly be subject to the same standard.
