By Jude Joffe-Block
Congressional Republicans are pushing a bill that would make sweeping changes to voter registration, including requiring those signing up to present documents proving U.S. citizenship. But tens of millions of Americans say they don’t have easy access to such documents, and critics say the proposal would dramatically depress voter participation.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE Act, was first introduced last year as President Trump and his allies focused on the baseless narrative that noncitizens presented a major threat to the 2024 election. Republicans see better chances for the bill now that they fully control Washington, while critics are pushing back with new concerns.
The current federal voter registration form requires voters to swear — under penalty of perjury — that they are U.S. citizens, and some states take additional steps to verify citizenship. Noncitizens who attempt to vote face steep penalties like jail, fines and deportation.
Backers of the SAVE Act say requiring voters to show citizenship documents is necessary to protect election integrity — though they have yet to provide evidence that instances of illegal voting by noncitizens are anything but incredibly rare.
“They are trying to take something that we all agree on — that only U.S. citizens should vote in U.S. elections — and use that to make it harder for millions of eligible citizens to cast their vote,” Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a video denouncing the bill.
Here are eight things to know about the SAVE Act.
Ahead of the 2024 election, Trump and his allies repeated the groundless claim that Democrats planned to cheat by encouraging noncitizens to illegally vote. Many political observers and election experts saw the baseless narrative as an attempt to sow doubt about the election results in case Trump lost.
Read the full article at npr.org.
March 12, 2025.
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