Rep. Yassamin Ansari, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Brian Lemek, Defend The Vote and Defend The Vote Action Fund Executive Director
Imagine showing up to register to vote only to be turned away because you couldn’t provide additional proof of your citizenship – despite being a legitimate American voter.
This nightmare scenario could become reality for tens of millions of eligible voters if the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act becomes law. The bill, getting a hearing in the House Monday, would erect expensive, redundant barriers to the ballot box, potentially disenfranchising countless citizens.
With Republicans fast-tracking the bill through Congress, the threat to our most fundamental democratic right couldn’t be clearer.
The SAVE Act would require voters to provide “documentary proof of United States citizenship.” This “proof” is far from simple – and potentially expensive. It’s duplicative of other requirements and overly burdensome. Even a driver’s license wouldn’t be enough for most people to register. Nor would military IDs for those who’ve served or tribal IDs for Native Americans.
This onerous requirement is both insulting and un-American. And it would affect those who simply want to update their voter registration because they moved, changed their name or switched parties.
The SAVE Act demands a passport as proof of citizenship or other documents in combination that make it more difficult for individuals to register to vote. Passports, the most straightforward proof of citizenship, are a document half of Americans don’t have and very often don’t have readily available when registering to vote – if they can even find them.
In Arizona, where one of us represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District, a little more than half of people don’t have passports. And getting one is a significant burden to place on someone just because they want to vote in their own country: Each one costs $130 and means collecting several documents and obtaining an appropriate photo, scheduling an appointment and getting time off during business hours to apply in person.
Under the SAVE Act, the 146 million U.S. citizens without passports could instead use a certified copy of their birth certificate – if they still have it. But unfortunately for people who have changed their names, including 1.5 million women in Arizona and almost 70 million more around the country, their birth certificates would not be eligible documents.
Older Americans would particularly be affected, because seniors are less likely to have the kinds of documents required to vote under the SAVE Act. This legislation could also lead to reduced participation by naturalized citizens if fear and misinformation spread, especially in today’s politically charged landscape.
This is simply backwards. We should work to reduce barriers to civic engagement and lower costs for everyday people.
But document requirements are just one part of the problem. The bill could also lead to purges of eligible voters based on faulty or out-of-date sources of citizenship data and impose severe penalties – fines and imprisonment – on election officials for simple mistakes.
Unfortunately, this piece of legislation is so central to the GOP’s agenda that, during the last Congress, MAGA Republicans threatened to shut down the government if it wasn’t passed – and it very nearly was. The bill managed to clear the House but ultimately did not receive a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Similar policies to what’s found in the SAVE Act that have been tried before. Their failure shows us just how bad things could get if SAVE succeeds. In the last presidential election, Arizona faced an administrative disaster that put over 200,000 eligible voters, including many Republicans, at risk of not being able to cast a ballot given the additional requirements imposed by a proof-of-citizenship law. In Kansas, a fiasco blocked the voter registrations of more than 31,000 U.S. citizens.
These extraordinary burdens could keep millions of eligible Americans from exercising a fundamental tenet of our democracy, and they wouldn’t solve the real problems plaguing our elections: chronic underfunding of election infrastructure, misinformation and violent threats against election administrators.
Disenfranchising millions of voters means stripping them of the ability to shape decisions that directly impact their lives – from affordable housing to grocery prices to energy costs.
Trump and MAGA Republicans justify the SAVE Act with lies about the 2020 election and who participates in voting. But the facts are clear: With the rarest of exceptions, only eligible American citizens vote in federal elections.
States already have secure systems in place to prevent noncitizens from voting. In Colorado, for example, election officials review the voter registration database to check if anyone who is registered provided a non-U.S. credential to receive a driver’s license. And if it does happen, violators face severe penalties.
Instead of making it harder to vote, Washington should prioritize passing real reforms to ensure we have safe, accessible elections. That means funding election security and administration while passing reforms such as the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Together, these measures would protect the right to vote and curb the influence of dark money in politics, putting the power back in the hands of the people.
Our goal must be to ensure everyone has a voice in our democracy, so it serves all of us.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari represents Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District and is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Brian Lemek is executive director of Defend The Vote and Defend The Vote Action Fund.
