Republican bill requiring proof of citizenship for voting passes US
House
[April 11, 2025]
By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY, CHRISTINE FERNANDO and LISA
MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed one of Republicans' signature issues
for the year on Thursday, approving legislation to require proof of U.S.
citizenship when registering to vote for federal elections, one of
President Donald Trump's top election-related priorities.
Nearly all Democrats lined up against the bill and warned that it risks
disenfranchising millions of Americans who do not have ready access to
the proper documents.
Trump has long signaled a desire to change how elections are run in the
U.S. and last month issued a sweeping executive order that included a
citizenship requirement among other election-related changes.
Republicans argued the legislation, known as the Safeguard American
Voter Eligibility Act, is necessary to ensure only citizens vote in U.S.
elections and would cement Trump’s order into law.
U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House
committee that handles election legislation, said during Thursday's
debate that the bill is meant to “restore Americans’ confidence in our
elections” and prevent noncitizens from voting.
This marks Republicans’ second attempt at passing the SAVE Act. It
passed the House last year but failed in the Senate amid Democratic
opposition.
It’s unlikely to fare any better this year. While Republicans won
control of the Senate last fall, they have a narrow majority that falls
short of the 60 votes they would need to overcome a filibuster.
Republicans hammered on the issue during last year’s presidential
election, even though voting by noncitizens is rare, already is illegal
and can lead to felony charges and deportation.
The SAVE Act would require all applicants using the federal voter
registration form to provide documentary proof of citizenship in person
at their local election office. Among the acceptable documents are a
valid U.S. passport and a government-issued photo ID card presented
alongside a certified birth certificate.
Democrats and voting rights groups warn the legislation could lead to
widespread voter disenfranchisement if it were to become law. The
Brennan Center for Justice and other groups estimated in a 2023 report
that 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, do not
have proof of their citizenship readily available. Almost half of
Americans don’t have a U.S. passport.
In Kansas, a proof-of-citizenship requirement that passed in 2011 ended
up blocking the voter registrations of more than 31,000 U.S. citizens in
the state who were otherwise eligible to vote. The law was later
declared unconstitutional by a federal court and hasn’t been enforced
since 2018.
“Just to exercise their inalienable right as citizens of this country,
Republicans would force Americans into a paperwork nightmare,” said Rep.
Joe Morelle, a Democrat from New York. “This bill is really about
disenfranchising Americans — not noncitizens, Americans.”
A further concern came up several times Thursday: Married women would
need multiple documents to prove their citizenship if they have changed
their name.
It was a complication that arose in town hall elections held last month
in New Hampshire, which was enforcing a new state law requiring proof of
citizenship to register. One woman, since divorced, told a local
elections clerk that her first marriage was decades ago in Florida and
that she no longer had the marriage certificate showing her name change.
She was unable to register and vote for her town election.
“This legislation would immediately disenfranchise the 69 million women
who have changed their names after marriage or divorce,” said Rep.
Deborah Ross, a Democrat from North Carolina.
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Voters mark their ballots while voting at Centennial Hall at the
Milwaukee Central Library on Election Day Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in
Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Rep. Laurel Lee, a Republican from Florida, said the bill
“contemplates this exact situation” of married women whose names
have changed, saying it “explicitly directs states to establish a
process for them to register to vote.”
Morelle countered by saying, “Why not write it in the bill? Why are
we making the potential for 50 different standards to be set? ...
How much paperwork do Republicans expect Americans to drown in?”
On a call with reporters Thursday, Vermont Secretary of State Sarah
Copeland Hanzas, a Democrat, said she started trying to gather her
own personal documents that would be required under the bill about
10 days ago. She doesn't yet have them together despite having more
time and know-how than many other people.
“It pushes women out of the democratic process,” she said of the
documentation requirement. “And it’s not a coincidence. It’s part of
a strategy to make voting harder, to sow distrust in our elections."
Democrats also said the bill would disproportionately affect older
people in assisted care facilities, military service members who
wouldn’t be able to solely use their military IDs, people of color
and working-class Americans who may not have the time or money to
jump through bureaucratic hoops.
“The SAVE Act is everything our civil rights leaders fought
against,” said Rep. Nikema Williams, a Democrat from Georgia.
Republicans have defended the legislation as necessary to restore
public confidence in elections and say it allows states to adopt
procedures to help voters comply. They have disputed Democratic
characterizations of the bill.
Four Democrats voted in favor of the legislation: Reps. Ed Case of
Hawaii, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine and Marie
Perez of Washington.
“The truth is, those who were registered to vote would still be able
to vote under their current registration,” said Rep. Chip Roy, a
Texas Republican who sponsored the bill. “We have mechanisms giving
the state fairly significant deference to make determinations as to
how to structure the situation where an individual does have a name
change, which of course is often women.”
On Thursday, Roy said Cleta Mitchell, a key figure in Trump’s
campaign to overturn the 2020 election results, “had a significant
hand in what we’re doing here.” Mitchell, a longtime GOP lawyer, has
played a central role in coordinating the movement to tighten voting
laws across the country.
Trump lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden but has
repeatedly made the bogus claim that it was stolen from him. There
is no evidence to support Trump’s claim: Elections officials and his
own attorney general rejected the notion, and his arguments have
been roundly dismissed by the courts, including judges he appointed.
Adrian Fontes, a Democrat who serves as Arizona’s top state election
official, described the voting proposal as a solution in search of a
problem, given how rare noncitizen voting is.
“What it is doing is capitalizing on fear -- fear built on a lie,”
Fontes said. “And the lie is that a whole bunch of people who aren’t
eligible are voting. That’s just not true.”
___
Cassidy reported from Atlanta, Fernando from Chicago. Associated
Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed
to this report.
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