The proposed “Save Act” will affect people of all different backgrounds during voter registration and elections.
by Marli Gingell
Editor-in-Chief
Two years behind 2024, the previous election year, the midterm elections approach in November of 2026. This year, a new bill was proposed in Congress to enforce the authenticity of citizenship during federal elections. However, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, coined the “SAVE Act,” limits the forms of identification used to register or vote, affecting marginal communities and restricting voting opportunities for US citizens.
The purpose of this act is to increase voter integrity and limit the access to voting from non citizens. It was originally passed in the house of representatives, February 11th 2026, and is currently resting in the senate. The SAVE act is supported by House representatives and president, Donald Trump.
The requirements reside in the forms of ID permitted for use during in person registration. It will become necessary to provide a license, along with either a passport or birth certificate. The updated license must match the entire full name on the birth certificate or the passport.
Although this act is advertised to enforce voter security, it actually causes significant issues for married women and low income households. According to Pew Research Center, in 2023 approximately 79% of women changed their last names to that of their husbands, and 5% hyphenated both last names. Because of the name change, the birth certificate and the license would not match, therefore unqualifying a US citizen to vote.
The other option of acceptable identification is a passport. The Department of State reported that about 45% to 50% of citizens have passports, leaving the other half of the population without one. While it’s not necessarily difficult to obtain a passport, it is expensive, sitting at $165. Unfortunately, this causes serious issues for families that can not afford to purchase one, or more, passports with the sheer purpose of identity. Passports also take 4-6 weeks to process. If the requests become more urgent, the system will take even longer, causing backups or delayed processing.
Despite the interest in the new act, there are already restrictions set in place to prevent non citizen voting. Several penalties include hefty fines, imprisonment, deportation or the possibility to never become a US citizen. On the rare occasion there is a non citizen voter, it’s easy to catch due to the paper trail and documentation used. An article from NPR enforces that the majority of non-citizen voting rumors come from an inaccurate survey conducted by Old Dominion University.
Although the House of Representatives passed the act, the senate still has yet to vote on its approval. Democratic members of the senate claim the votes needed are “nowhere close” to the appropriate number of approval or to break a filibuster. Although it is unlikely to see the act passed, the proposal itself shows a strain on the upcoming midterm elections and a political division between voting laws.