House Advances Anti-Voter SAVE Act; NLIHC Joins Leadership Conference Sign-On Letter Opposing Bill

By Tia Turner, NLIHC Project Manager, Our Homes, Our Votes 

The House of Representatives voted on February 11 to approve a federal voter suppression bill called the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act” (H.R. 7296). NLIHC, alongside more than 130 national, state, and local organizations, joined a Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights sign-on letter strongly opposing the “SAVE America Act” and related bills. The “SAVE America Act” would require every American to provide documentary proof of citizenship in-person every time they register to vote or update their voter registration, even though federal election law already includes checks to ensure that only eligible citizens can vote. In most cases, citizens would be required to show their passport or birth certificate; government-issued REAL IDs, military IDs, or Tribal IDs would not satisfy the bill’s requirements. More than 21 million eligible voters do not have proof-of-citizenship documents readily available.   

If enacted, the “SAVE America Act” would disproportionately disenfranchise renters, who move more frequently than homeowners. Voters must update their registration when they move to a new home. The “SAVE America Act” would make this process more burdensome by requiring voters to present a passport or birth certificate in person each time they move. Because passport ownership increases dramatically with income, low-income citizens would be less likely to meet the bill’s stringent voter registration requirements: only 21% of Americans with household incomes under $50,000 possess a passport, compared to 64% of Americans with household incomes above $100,000. Two-thirds of Black Americans lack a valid US passport; these racial disparities in passport ownership would put Black citizens at greater risk of disenfranchisement, perpetuating a long history of discriminatory voter suppression measures designed to curtail Black Americans’ political power.  The “SAVE America Act” would also enact barriers to voter registration for rural citizens, who must travel longer distances to their election offices, and Native citizens, who could no longer use their Tribal IDs as proof of citizenship. People who change their names, including approximately 69 million married women, would also face challenges to their voter registration because the law does not specify what documents are necessary to prove their identity.   

Because the “SAVE Act” would require registrants to show documentary proof of citizenship in person at their election offices, it would make nonprofit-led, nonpartisan voter registration drives infeasible, including those carried out by Our Homes, Our Votes campaign partners. The bill would also effectively eliminate online voter registration.   

To become law, the bill must pass the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. NLIHC’s nonpartisan Our Homes, Our Votes campaign encourages housing advocates to contact their senators and strongly urge them to oppose the bill.   

Read the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights’ letter of opposition to the “SAVE Act” here.  

Learn more about the Our Homes, Our Votes campaign here.