Wingnut Chip Roy (Idiot-TX) introduced the SAVE Act in 2024, which would require all Americans to provide a birth certificate, passport, or one of a few other citizenship documents every time they register or re-register to vote. He has reintroduced the bill and in the coming weeks, the Republican controlled House of Representatives will hold a vote on it. The SAVE Act will have dramatic effects on America’s vote-by-mail system and disenfranchise groups that already have limited voting access.
What is the SAVE Act?
The bill would functionally eliminate mail registration by requiring voters registering by mail to produce citizenship documents “in person” to an election official before the registration deadline. It would also abolish many or all voter registration drives and online voter registration systems, which are typically treated like mail registration. (Moreover, the bill does not contemplate copies or electronic records of citizenship documents.) And it would severely hamper automatic voter registration, as many of those transactions don’t occur in person while someone has citizenship documents with them.
Address changes could be significantly impacted, too. Instead of your registration automatically updating when, for instance, you change your driver’s license address online, you might have to bring your passport or birth certificate to an election agency office to update your voter registration.
Beyond the impact on voter registration methods, the SAVE Act would exclude millions of eligible American citizens who do not have ready access to the documentation it requires. According to a survey conducted by the Brennan Center and partners, more than 9 percent of American voting-age citizens, or 21.3 million people, don’t have a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers readily available. Voters of color, voters who change their names (most notably, married women), and younger voters would be most significantly affected.
Negative Effects on Disenfranchised Communities:
Many U.S. citizens—especially people of color, low-income individuals and women—do not possess the required documentation and face significant challenges in obtaining it, creating disproportionate barriers for historically disenfranchised communities.
As many as 69 million women who have taken their spouse’s name do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name.
- Approximately 11 percent of Americans of color lack ready access to citizenship documents—compared to about 8 percent of white Americans.
- Nearly 9 percent of voting-age Black Americans lack access to birth certificates and passports, compared to 5.5 percent of white Americans.
