The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, a sweeping voter access law that would add a layer of documentation requirements to those already in place, is currently stalled in the Senate. This marks the third time a version of this act has been passed in the House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate, where the Republican Party — commonly referred to as the GOP — does not currently have the 60-vote majority needed to sign the bill into law. It is to be voted on after Congress returns from its spring recess on April 13.
According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the SAVE America Act would require voters to provide “documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID at the time of voting.” Proof of citizenship includes either a passport or a birth certificate paired with another form of photo identification, such as a driver’s license or military ID. Only about half of the American population has a valid passport as of 2024 according to USA Today, meaning that the remaining half would be required to present two forms of identification at the time of registration — typically a birth certificate and driver’s license — that contain corroborating information.
This would take the ability to vote away from millions of women and transgender people, who often do not have two forms of identification with the same name. In fact, the Pew Research Center reports that 79% of married women have taken their husbands’ last name. That is roughly 70 million women, approximately 35 million of whom do not have a passport and thus would be unable to vote if the SAVE America Act were passed.
Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, representative for Oregon’s 3rd district, says that the SAVE America Act is a “voter suppression bill disguised as trying to protect election integrity.” According to USA Today, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, has referred to the bill as “Jim Crow 2.0” and claimed it is voter suppression, in line with comments made by numerous other Democratic congresspeople. “It signals a current trend in the administration and the [Republican Party] to restrict voting,” states Jeremy Sacks, a lawyer and partner at the law firm Stoel Rives.
President Trump and other Republican lawmakers have argued that the SAVE America Act is a necessary response to prevalent instances of noncitizen voting. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law institute affiliated with the New York University School of Law, “Multiple analyses have shown that it is more likely that someone will be struck by lightning than commit mail ballot fraud.” Dexter says that voting fraud is “not a problem that needs to be solved.” Sacks agrees, saying that the SAVE America Act is a “solution in search of a problem.”
On the official White House website, the SAVE America Act has its own banner category. Trump has also encouraged lawmakers to expand the act, adding clauses that would essentially create a database of voter information. On March 31, the Trump administration released an executive order entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” This executive order calls for stricter mail-in voting requirements, the establishment of a voter database, and more stringent election security measures. As of April 3, 23 states have already filed lawsuits against this executive order. “They’re also trying to mandate the handing over of the voter rolls, which opens up a whole series of opportunities for intimidation and voter suppression,” says Dexter.
The official White House website states, “The SAVE America Act Is the Most Popular Election Reform in Decades.” However, according to Navigator Research, only 50% of Americans support the act, and this number decreases as they learn more about what it really is.
Further criticism of the bill centers on its restriction of state choice. Many lawmakers and constitutional lawyers cite the Constitution, which states that “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.” Dexter says that the law is “100% a federal overreach,” and a form of intimidation.
This act has been compared to a poll tax by multiple congresspeople, including Dexter. Poll taxes, which required people to pay to vote, were a Jim Crow-era tool used to restrict low- income citizens and people of color from voting. Poll taxes were outlawed in federal elections by the 24th Amendment, and ruled unconstitutional in state elections by the Supreme Court in 1966. While the SAVE America Act would not require people to pay to vote, it would require many Americans to get a passport or update their identification to do so, which is costly. In fact, just getting a passport can cost nearly $200. “[The] SAVE America Act is a modern-day poll tax … requiring voters to navigate a costly and time-consuming process just to exercise their constitutional right,” states Democratic Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, a Representative of Virginia’s 4th district.
In addition, the SAVE Act would also heavily restrict mail-in voting, which would be particularly impactful in Oregon, where the majority of voters do so by mail. “It would absolutely make voting much, much harder, because voters would have to submit proof of ID both when casting their ballots, so there’s no just dropping it off in a dropbox anymore,” says Dexter.
Sacks doesn’t think that the bill is “actually meant to pass” in the first place. “It’s a political act. It’s performative.” Although Dexter does not believe the bill will be passed either, she says that the fact that it is even being debated is concerning to her. “Women are 100% being disenfranchised by this bill,” she states. She continues, “We had to fight for far too long to get the right to vote. I am not going to sit down and let this right be taken from us once again.”
If passed, the SAVE Act would change the very framework of American elections. It would be the most “restrictive voting bill ever passed by Congress,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice, and would prevent millions of Americans from voting. Those that can — even currently registered voters — would have to provide multiple documents, documents that cost money and that most people do not have access to. While it is fairly unlikely that the SAVE America act will pass in the Senate, concerns continue to rise about the precedent it sets for broad voting restrictions and suppression.
