The SAVE ACT Summarized
What is SAVE? SAVE Act Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act - put forward by 81 Republican Representatives
Text of bill:
https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr22/BILLS-119hr22ih.pdf
Background:
Passed by the House in 2024, and reintroduced on January 3rd, 2025 in the 119th Congress by Rep Chip Roy (R-TX) , the SAVE Act is currently in the House Committee for House Administration. It is expected that the bill will be brought to the floor of the House on February 24th for one hour of debate and then a vote.
Talking Points:
The SAVE Act amends the National Voter Registration Act to make it far, far more difficult for a large swath of America to register to vote. It is designed to disenfranchise potential voters by requiring voters registering or changing their registration information to provide ID that hundreds of millions of Americans do not have, and forcing that ID to be presented in person.
This massive group includes:
- Military and civilians abroad
- Voters without a passport or up to date birth certificate
- All mail-in registration voters, which often includes
- College students
- Seniors
- Military in the United States
- Rural voters
- Workers who are not eligible to take time off from work to register
- People who have changed their name and have no passport
Impact on Election Officials:
Every election office across the U.S. will be impacted by this bill, which places an undue burden on local election officials, mandating that they:
- Require all mail-in voters to present their proof of citizenship documentation in person,
- Accept the burden of being subject to criminal penalties if they register voters who fail to provide documentary proof of their U.S. citizenship,
Not only will this significantly increase the strain on an already strained system, but it will negate the millions of dollars of current infrastructure that is already in place across all 50 states and DC for voter registration and cost millions of dollars to implement.
Known costs include the need to:
- Overhaul voter registration systems
- Pay for increased administrative workload in election offices
- Cover legal and compliance costs
Talk about wasteful spending!
More on the bill and its outlook here: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/save-act-would-undermine-voter-registration-all-americans
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