The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act is a federal bill that proposes changing how people register and vote in U.S. elections. It requires voters to show specific physical proof of U.S. citizenship, like a passport, birth certificate, REAL ID indicating citizenship, or qualifying military records when registering and mandates a government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot.
The new rules would largely end convenient online and mail-in voter registration options because people would generally need to present documents in person.
As states would be directed to review voter rolls and remove individuals who do not meet the new citizenship verification standards, supporters say the law is a common-sense step to secure elections.
But the Democratic politicians and media figures who oppose the act have spent years describing voter-identification laws as "Jim Crow 2.0." Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and others have portrayed routine verification as a deliberate attack on minority voters.
The U.S. House of Representatives has advanced or passed versions of the SAVE Act, including related iterations such as the SAVE America Act, at least four times.
But even though a 2024 Pew survey found that 69% of Democrats supported requiring voters to show government-issued photo ID, the legislation remains stalled in the Senate because it lacks the 60 votes required to overcome a legislative filibuster, facing unified opposition from Democrats and some Republican resistance.
"This is one of those 80-20 kind of issues here in the United States," says Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "Probably 80% of the American people think it's a good idea for people to demonstrate, one, that they're citizens when they register to vote, and, two, that they identify themselves when they show up at the polls."
"It's only a very small, radical group of people who think we should just let anybody register and vote without really much scrutiny at all," he adds.
Ironically, Democrats accept or support ID requirements in many other contexts, including boarding a plane, buying alcohol, renting a car, opening a bank account, starting a job, and checking into a hotel.
"You have Mayor Mamdani in New York who is opening up these cut-rate grocery stores," Mehlman notes. "You have to be able to show ID if you're shopping at a Mamdani mart, but somehow, if you show up to vote, we can't ask you to prove who you are."
He concludes that failing to secure the integrity of America's electoral process undermines the nation's basic foundation.
"We have reached a point now where we're seeing an erosion of that trust in the electoral process, and that will undermine our whole system of government if it persists," Mehlman warns.
