The Effort to Bring the Save Act to the States
The voter suppression playbook fueled by a lie: noncitizen voting.
Across the United States, a coordinated effort is underway to restrict access to the ballot box, targeting young people, rural voters, and communities of color. At the center of this assault is the federal SAVE Act (H.R. 22) – a bill that passed the U.S. House and now looms in the Senate.
But the SAVE Act isn’t just a federal problem – it’s a playbook being copied by conservative state legislatures from Texas to Utah to Wyoming.
Let’s be clear: this legislation is not about election security. It’s about voter suppression by design.
The “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act,” or SAVE Act, sounds benign. But underneath its patriotic branding lies a dangerous truth: it would require every American to present proof of citizenship each time they register to vote, even when re-registering due to a change of address. That means a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization papers – documents that tens of millions Americans don’t have readily available.
And if you don’t have them? You’re either forced to navigate a bureaucratic maze to obtain new documents (often at a cost) or get shut out of the democratic process.
If enacted, the SAVE Act would:
Upend existing mail-in and online voter registration systems
Force error-prone voter purges
Disproportionately make it harder for young voters, voters of color, rural voters, and women who’ve changed their names after marriage to register to vote
Fuel misinformation about noncitizen voting – a virtually nonexistent problem
In fact, decades of investigations across the country, including in Georgia, have found virtually no evidence of noncitizen voting. Even the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation (the architects of Project 2025) found only 85 instances in about 2 billion votes cast over the past 20 years.
What started in Congress is now a national strategy. Republican lawmakers are advancing SAVE Act-style bills in state legislatures, often with even harsher twists.
In Texas, SB 16 would have required voters to present government documents like a birth certificate or passport just to register. If you can’t produce the right paperwork, you’re either blocked entirely or restricted to voting in Congressional races only – a quiet form of disenfranchisement that creates two tiers of citizenship.
In New Hampshire, a recent law turned away at least 96 eligible voters, many of them women who had changed their names after marriage. One woman had to make three trips just to cast her ballot.
Utah’s HB 300, passed earlier this year, dismantles the state’s current mail-in voting system and adds new ID requirements, and gives election officials broad power to investigate voters based on vague “anomalies.”
Florida’s HB 1381 would have required all voter registration applications, including updates to voter registration such as party affiliation changes or address changes, to include documentary proof of citizenship unless the voters’ citizenship can be confirmed by election officials. Bill sponsor Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R) said that the bill “fully [answered]” Trump’s “call” for voters to provide proof of citizenship.
Wyoming’s HB 156, which is set to go into effect on July 1, requires all voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship and residence in order to register to vote. A pro-voting group filed a lawsuit challenging the bill in May.
This is no coincidence. It’s a coordinated campaign by a network of far-right activists and organizations, who use fears of “noncitizen voting” to justify changes to election laws and rules that disenfranchise eligible American voters. And coincidentally, changes to election laws and rules are mostly targeted towards demographic groups of voters that are least likely to vote for Republican politicians.
The right to vote is not a privilege for those with perfect paperwork. And your access to the ballot shouldn’t be based on who Republican activists think you’re likely to vote for – it’s a fundamental American right. And we’re at risk of losing it, piece by piece, bill by bill – fueled by lie after lie.
The SAVE Act may not sound dangerous. But the millions it could silence? That’s the real threat. Call your U.S. Senators today and urge them to vote against the SAVE Act: (202) 224-3121.
Join us at FairFight.com and let’s fight back.
Fair Fight Team
I just hope that those of us who can easily produce proof of citizenship vote these assholes out of office!
In addition to calling our senators, please consider joining a group which will help enable voters to be able to register, to register, and to get to the polls. All hands on deck now.