ACLU Condemns House Passage of SAVE America Act as Dangerous Assault on Democracy

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the so-called SAVE America Act, which would impose new burdensome requirements related to voter registration processes and expand federal involvement in state election administration. The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate for consideration.

“The SAVE America Act is another thinly veiled attempt to interfere with our elections,” said Xavier Persad, senior policy counsel for ACLU’s National Political Advocacy Department. “There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud that justifies imposing burdensome show-your-papers requirements on every eligible voter. Laws like this have historically resulted in many eligible citizens being delayed or denied access to the ballot due to paperwork issues, database mismatches, or bureaucratic error. What we are seeing from elected officials: seizing sensitive voter data, calls to ‘nationalize’ voting, using violent federal agent presence as a bargaining chip — none of this is normal and we must protect our voices and our ability to hold these officials accountable. These attacks on the freedom to vote and local election administration are occurring while federal immigration agents continue to brutalize our communities, kidnap our neighbors, and violate constitutional protections that are foundational to our democracy, including the right to protest and freedom of the press. The SAVE America Act and similar efforts are attempts to distract from these federal abuses of power while silencing voters who seek to hold this administration accountable at the ballot box. We urge the Senate to reject this bill and all attempts to undermine our elections.”

The SAVE America Act, like the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act, is another more extreme attempt to enact the dangerous provisions of the SAVE Act. This legislation would require passports or birth certificates just to register to vote or update voter registration information — documents that an estimated 21 million eligible voters don’t have ready access to. As many as 69 million women who have changed their name due to marriage would face additional hurdles. The SAVE America Act would also impose extremely restrictive photo ID requirements to vote. Voters with low incomes, naturalized citizens, voters of color, rural voters, older voters, young voters, and transgender voters would be disproportionately impacted by these restrictions due to financial constraints, mismatched paperwork, and other obstacles. Moreover, the SAVE America Act would force states to engage in faulty voter roll purges and turn over Americans’ private, sensitive voter data to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Previously, Kansas enacted a documentary proof-of-citizenship law which required people to prove their citizenship to register to vote. It blocked more than 30,000 eligible voters from registering to vote, and was later struck down for violating the National Voter Registration Act and U.S. Constitution.

The vote comes amid ongoing legal disputes between the federal government and several states concerning access to voter records and election data.

In recent months, the Trump Administration has sought expanded access to sensitive voter information, without explanation or plans to protect it, and has raided an election center in Fulton County, Georgia in an attempt to further push false claims about the 2020 election results.