Talking About the SAVE America Act

Senate Republicans have signaled their intent to bring S. 1383, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, to the floor in the coming weeks. This bill would require every voter in every state across America to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote, and to present a photo ID when voting. To enforce this requirement, the bill bars states from accepting or processing an application to register to vote in a federal election unless the applicant presents proof of US citizenship, such as a valid passport or birth certificate. Any name discrepancies would require additional documentation. Within 30 days of enactment, the bill requires states to take affirmative steps to ensure that only US citizens are registered to vote, including establishing a program to identify individuals who are not US citizens. The bill also creates limitations for voting methods other than in-person voting, essentially eliminating vote by mail for most citizens.

Talking Points

• President Trump has said the quiet part out loud: Republicans need this bill to win the midterms. That tells you exactly what this is about. Not election integrity. Not fraud prevention. This is about voter suppression.
• This bill is a drastic solution in search of a non-existent problem. Documented cases of noncitizen voting are exceedingly rare. In fact, even the Trump-aligned Heritage Foundation has only found 77 documented cases of noncitizen voting over a period of more than 20 years.
• Noncitizen voting is already illegal and has been for more than a century. The penalties include prison and deportation. How many immigrants are risking everything—their family and their freedom—to cast one ballot?
• This bill would make it uniquely hard for women to vote. Roughly 69 million women in this country have changed their name after marriage, meaning their birth certificates would be insufficient identification for voting registration under this bill.
• This bill is an unfunded federal mandate dumped on counties. It requires counties to make major changes to voter registration and verification procedures without providing dedicated federal funding for implementation. Estimates show that implementation could cost an additional $510 million every election cycle, while also forcing massive retraining and procedural overhauls on local election offices.
• Even county officials warn this bill would create chaos. The National Association of Counties says it would force counties to update complex systems on an inadequate timeline, piling on millions of hours of additional training, and exposing election workers to new criminal penalties for not quickly enough implementing these mandates.
• It took the US government nearly 20 years to implement REAL ID—a policy that only standardized driver’s licenses. Republicans now want states and counties to begin overhauling voter registration systems in just 30 days, without paying for it. This bill is not built to work; it is built to intimidate and burden election administration. 

Additional Provisions

• In an attempt to persuade skeptical Republican Senators to support this bill which would disenfranchise many of their own constituents and place new burdens on the rest, President Trump has proposed adding two unrelated provisions to the Senate version of the legislation that he hopes might appeal to the MAGA base. The most important point to emphasize around the sections related to transgender young people is that we need rules around health care for young people and sports, but those rules and guardrails should not be replaced with blanket bans.
• IF ASKED ABOUT THE SPORTS BAN: We all want sports to be fair and student athletes to be safe. That’s why school districts and sports associations already make rules about who can participate in different sports at different levels. A blanket ban overriding those rules would be bad for everyone, requiring young girls to answer invasive personal questions or even undergo physical inspections by strangers if they want to play sports.
• IF ASKED ABOUT HEALTH CARE FOR TRANSGENDER TEENS: Medical decisions should be made between parents, doctors, and patients. No parent should be punished for getting their child the health care they need; no doctor should be jailed for following the medical standards of care. Politicians shouldn’t be banning proven medical care and overruling parents on private decisions about how they raise their families and care for their children.