The SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) Act would make it harder for all Americans to vote by requiring voters to prove their citizenship by presenting documentation—in person—when registering to vote or updating their voter registration information. It would require most Americans to rely on a passport or birth certificate to prove their citizenship.

To be clear, the goal of ensuring that only those eligible can register to vote is important. In fact, we already have laws in place barring those without citizenship status from voting in federal and state elections. Proponents of this bill claim it will guard against voter fraud, but THE SAVE ACT is, in reality, a VOTER SUPPRESSION BILL.

Key Points

• Less than half of Americans have a passport, and many face barriers to getting one.

• As many as 69 million women who took their spouse’s last name don’t have a birth certificate matching their legal name. Likewise for trans people, foster youth, and other often marginalized groups.

• In-person documentation requirements will disproportionately impact:

  • Rural citizens far from election offices

  • Individuals with disabilities, elderly, and young voters who may lack transportation

  • Low-income people unable to afford transportation

  • People unable to take time off work

  • Military personnel and students

• Requiring in-person documentation complicates voter registration and re-registration/updates by:

  • Essentially eliminating mail-in and online registration and voter registration drives

  • Disrupting automatic voter registration

  • Shifting the burden of eligibility verification to citizens

  • Creating more red tape with additional paperwork, staff time, bureaucracy, and delays

• The legislation makes it a crime for election officials to register applicants without proof of citizenship, raising concerns about a chilling effect on election officials.

• It would mandate frequent voter purges, threatening Americans’ right to vote.

How to Prepare

• The best think you can do is to work to STOP this legislation NOW! We’ve got some tools to help below.

• If you don’t have a passport, get one if you can.

• Gather any other documentation you can that prove your citizenship - the bill has very vague provisions about other documentation that may be acceptable, but that would be left up to individual states.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP THE SAVE ACT

Spread the Word
Talk to your friends, family, and community! Republicans have long argued, and managed to convince millions of people, that voter fraud is a major threat to electoral integrity. That is a LIE. Fraud by voters at the polls is vanishingly rare. You can arm yourself with some basic facts by reading this “Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth” from the Brennan Center for Justice.