The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act passed the House of Representatives in early April, with the advertised intent of ensuring only American citizens can vote in US elections—a complete non-issue, as instances of unnaturalized immigrants illegally voting are so rare as to be negligible. If this bill passes the Senate and is signed into law, it will disenfranchise millions of citizens, namely women and rural voters.
According to the Center for American Progress, the SAVE Act would require all American citizens registering to vote or updating their registration to present documents proving their citizenship in person to election officials. Notably, driver’s licenses would not be allowed as proof of citizenship, forcing all Americans to present either a passport or a birth certificate. Under this bill, the name on the documents would have to match the name a person is registering under in order to be considered valid, which a massive concern for anyone who has changed their name as an adult. This is particularly harmful to women, since 84 percent of married women changed their surname, according to Politico, amounting to 69 million American women with birth certificates that don’t match their legal name. The SAVE Act does not mention being able to show a marriage certificate or court order indicating a name change in addition to a birth certificate, meaning that as much as 25 percent of the voting population would have to change their birth certificate in order to register to vote.
Additionally, according to the Center for American Progress, about 146 million American citizens do not possess a valid passport, with most living below the poverty line. For example, only 20% of Americans earning less than $50,000 a year have a valid passport. As such, the SAVE Act would disproportionately affect rural and impoverished citizens, especially since obtaining a passport or birth certificate costs a significant amount of money and since this bill would eliminate online and mail-in voter registration. AP News reports that this would be a massive barrier for people who live in rural parts of America, where the nearest election office could be a several-hour drive away. Due to its convenience, most Americans register to vote or update their registration online or through the mail, with only 6 percent of the voter registrations in 2022 occurring in person. Requiring all voter registrations to be in person at an election office would significantly decrease the number of eligible voters able to register, without the convenience of being able to do it online.
One go-to argument from the Republicans in support of this bill is that it would not impact anyone already registered to vote, but the Center for American Progress notes that this is not true. Even minor changes, such as moving into an apartment down the block or changing party affiliation, are considered voter registration updates, and these are things that most adults do multiple times throughout their lives. According to North American Moving Services, each year sees around 30 million Americans relocate at least once, and each move necessitates an update to vote registration.
These impacts render the SAVE Act unconstitutional. Because it uniquely impacts the ability of women to be vote, it violates the 19th Amendment. It also violates the 24th Amendment, which outlawed poll taxes. Politico reports that a US passport book for an adult costs between $130 and $246, with the alternative—changing the name on a birth certificate—requiring a court order and involving court fees, which can range from $100 to $400 depending on the state. Under the SAVE Act, voting would require certain documents, and those documents would require money, meaning that registering to vote would cost money—potentially hundreds of dollars per voter—which amounts to a poll tax.
Some Republicans have argued that the inconveniences of this bill are worth it to stop non-citizens from voting, but there are already a slew of measures in place to prevent that. The Center for American Politics states that election officials are required to verify the eligibility of each person who registers to vote using data from the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. These measures have proven incredibly effective, with instances of non-citizens voting in any US election being so rare as to be statistically insignificant.
The SAVE Act is a tyrannical “solution” to a complete non-issue that will disenfranchise millions of American citizens. It cannot be allowed to pass the Senate, for the sake of everyone in this country.
