The House of Representatives is set to vote on election-integrity legislation, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, on Thursday.
The SAVE Act would bar states from registering people to vote in federal elections unless they provide documentary proof of American citizenship. To that end, it would also make it a crime to register an individual who did not provide proof that they are a U.S. citizen.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, further mandates that states remove noncitizens from their official lists of eligible voters. The bill passed the House of Representatives during the previous Congress, but was prevented from becoming law by Senate Democrats.
“Let me be clear: American elections are for Americans only. Rep. Roy’s commonsense SAVE Act will only be controversial for Democrats who are working for illegal immigrants instead of the American people,” Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the House majority whip and a co-sponsor of the bill, told The Daily Signal.
“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, which is why protecting them at a federal level from foreign influence is essential to our nation’s sovereignty and will ensure America flourishes for decades to come,” Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, said in a statement.
“I encourage my Democrat colleagues to support the SAVE Act, because every American should want to safeguard our elections and ensure only citizens are able to vote in and influence them. Requiring proof of citizenship to vote is particularly important because it is essential to safeguarding the integrity of our electoral system. You have to show an ID to open a bank account, get on a plane, and drive a car. Why would the standard be any less to vote for our elected officials?” Pfluger said.
“Because we have what is, in essence, an ‘honor’ system for voter registration, it is easy for aliens to register and vote even though it violates state and federal laws,” said Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and senior legal fellow at the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
Von Spakovsky believes that preemptive prevention of voter fraud is the only way to ensure secure elections.
“The only way to prevent this disenfranchisement is by requiring proof of citizenship when individuals are registering to vote to prevent such illegal votes from being cast in the first place,” he explained.
“Registering to vote provides a voter registration card that can then be used to obtain other forms of identification, and it is one of the items that can be used to establish your identity for federal employment requirements under immigration law. The evidence is there that aliens are registered and voting all over the country,” he added.
Currently, 14 states and the District of Columbia do not require voter ID for elections, and California passed a law in 2024 that prohibits local governments from requiring voter identification at polls in the state. New York City on March 20 had a 2022 law permitting noncitizens to vote in local elections struck down as unconstitutional by the state’s highest court. The law would have applied to 800,000 noncitizens in the city.
Von Spakovsky maintains that it’s not even guaranteed that uncovered cases of voter fraud will be prosecuted.
“[T]he chances of being caught are slim to none, because election officials do not verify citizenship. Moreover, even when caught, many prosecutors simply ignore such violations and do not prosecute them,” he said.
Illegal voting also has broad implications for other forms of fraud, according to Von Spakovsky.
“Registering to vote provides a voter registration card that can then be used to obtain other forms of identification, and it is one of the items that can be used to establish your identity for federal employment requirements under immigration law. The evidence is there that aliens are registered and voting all over the country,” the senior legal fellow noted.
Roy’s bill is co-sponsored by 96 fellow House Republicans. It comes as Americans express concern over election security and integrity. According to Pew Research polling from October of last year, only 35% of Trump supporters are confident that noncitizens will be prevented from voting.
“Secure elections are a cornerstone in maintaining any democracy. The fact of the matter is, certain states are exploiting loopholes to allow noncitizen voting in our federal elections,” Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told The Daily Signal.
“The SAVE Act will close these loopholes and ensure that only American citizens are voting in American elections. I am a proud co-sponsor of this bill,” the Maryland congressman concluded.
