SAVE Act passes House, with 4 Democrats backing bill to require proof of citizenship for voter registration
Washington — The House passed a controversial bill on Thursday that would require Americans to show proof of citizenship in person to register to vote in federal elections, which critics say could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.
Four Democrats joined all Republicans to pass the measure in a 220-208 vote.
The bill, titled the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or the SAVE Act, would require applicants to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship such as a valid passport, a birth certificate or other forms of identification that show a person is a U.S. citizen. It's aimed at preventing noncitizens from voting — something which is already illegal and rare.
Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who introduced the bill, said Thursday "there's nothing controversial about saying that you should be able to ensure that only citizens vote."
A 2023 study from the Brennan Center for Justice found that more than 21 million American citizens did not have easy access to documents that would prove their citizenship. Another 3.8 million did not have the documents at all, often because they had been lost, destroyed or stolen. The bill's requirement to show proof of citizenship in person would affect millions more voters who do have the documentation but register by mail or online, the Brennan Center said.
Critics also say it would pose a barrier for people who have changed their legal names through marriage. An estimated 69 million women and 4 million men do not have a last name that matches their birth certificate, according to the Center for American Progress.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, on Monday called the measure a "voter suppression bill." But it was not a surprise that nearly a handful of Democrats ended up voting for it Thursday. When the House passed the bill last year, it had the support of five Democrats. But it went nowhere in the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats.
The vote comes after the House earlier this week killed an effort to permit remote voting for new parents in Congress. Rep. Sara Jacobs, a California Democrat, told reporters that the effort, along with the push to pass the SAVE Act, shows Republicans "really don't want women to be able to vote."
Rep. Laurel Lee, a Florida Republican said the bill accommodates people who do not have documentation to reflect their name change because it directs states to create a process for them to register to vote "irrespective of those discrepancies."
"Citizens will be able to use combinations of existing identification documents in order to register to vote," she said Thursday.
The measure now heads to the Senate.
