By Kristin Farry © Kristin A. Farry

The US Senate is debating the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act this
week. We’ve been told that this bill’s purpose is preventing non-citizen voting. But it’s
already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections (1996 Immigration Reform), so
the SAVE Act is actually about what kind of identification we use to register and vote.
Co-sponsors of the 2025 House version (HR22, passed April 2025) included Virginia’s
John McGuire (VA-05) and Ben Cline (VA-06). Three other Virginia
representatives—Rob Wittman (VA-01, Jennifer Kiggans (VA-2), and Morgan Griffith
(VA-09)—voted for it. The bill hasn’t gotten enough senate votes to become law. Both
of Virginia’s US Senators oppose it. Why?

You must show ID to buy alcohol or cash a check, so why not require ID to vote? This
sounds very reasonable.

The SAVE Act greatly increases voter ID requirements at both voter registration and
voting. If it passes, you will no longer be able to complete voter registration at the DMV
or the Health Department. You will have to hand-carry proof of US citizenship to the
Registrar’s office: (1) an official birth record containing specific information plus court
authorization(s) for name changes (adoption/marriage/divorce); (2) naturalization
papers; or (3) a passport or passport card. The new Virginia “RealID” driver’s license is
not acceptable—even though getting a RealID requires proving citizenship with the
same documents—because it doesn’t show your citizenship or place of birth.
Have you ever been asked for your birth certificate to write a check or buy booze? Do
you have an official copy handy? Don’t worry—you can get an official copy for $12 to
$135, depending on where you were born and how much time you have to get it.
Birth “certificates” vary. Birth records for older citizens not born in a hospital may not
meet the SAVE Act requirements. Married women who’ve taken their husband’s name
will find their birth certificates alone are not adequate and must bring documents linking
their birth name to their current name. The registrar cannot give you the benefit of any
doubt in reading these records, because the SAVE Act introduces criminal penalties for
election officials making any errors in verifying citizenship status. The Act will also
permit anyone to sue if they suspect that the registrar is not strict enough. We’ll have to
increase our registrar’s staff, because a formerly automated task will now require 15-30
minutes of face time. The SAVE Act doesn’t send any funding to our local election
administrators for this additional workload, so we’ll have to use local tax dollars to cover
this—and the SAVE Act will be effective immediately if passed.

The only certain path to SAVE voter registration is a US passport or passport card,
because it’s the only federal government-issued document that shows place of birth.
Passports are expensive (at least $165 for your first). About 62-64% of city and
suburban residents have them. Only 47% of all rural residents, 42% of working-class
rural citizens, and 38% in evangelical Christians hubs have them. And the US
government has just reduced the number of passport application locations.
The SAVE Act would change Virginia’s same-day registration policy. Now, you have
until the Friday following the election to present documentation to get a provisional
ballot counted. The SAVE Act requires all the registration documents on election day.
More poll workers (currently 40 for a general election), more poll worker training.
Can you ignore this if you are already registered? Maybe. Recall that hundreds of US
citizens were caught in Governor Youngkin’s “non-citizen” purge just before the 2024
election. The US Constitution gives states responsibility for running elections for federal
officials. The latest House version of the SAVE Act (HR 7296, with Kiggans, McGuire,
and Cline among the co-sponsors) stops just short of requiring states to turn state voter
registration databases over to the federal government. The courts have sided with
states against those federal requests; however, the SAVE Act would require states to
use federal databases to check voter citizenship, and to purge any voters that the
federal government claims may not be citizens. This Act will build a voter data-sharing
pathway which would undermine voter privacy as well as state election authority.
Virginia’s “Third-Party Voter Registration Challenge” Law allows voters to challenge
other voters’ registrations. Last year, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
“experts” shared our personal data with “election integrity” organizations and artificial
intelligence companies. It’s now possible to quickly compile lists of voters supporting an
opponent and convince someone to challenge their registrations. This could swamp our
registrars with citizenship verification and derail election preparation and early voting.
Throw in a lawsuit claiming that a registrar isn’t strict enough in checking citizenship
documentation to really derail an election. The 2026 SAVE Act allows “private right of
action,” enabling private individuals to file a civil suit against anyone for SAVE Act
violations.
Assuming you succeed in registering or staying registered, the SAVE Act would also
reduce ID options for the day you vote. It limits acceptable ID to “valid” government-
issued photo IDs. Virginia’s list of 15 allowable IDs shrinks to just 5—and those must be
unexpired. Unless you work for the government or in the military, government-issued
photo IDs cost money. Elderly citizens who have given up driving will no longer be able
to use their expired Virginia Driver’s License for voter ID—they’ll need to get a
replacement ID card at DMV ($10 plus taxi fare).

Wait a minute! The government issues birth certificates, marriage licenses, name
changes, adoptions, naturalizations, and passports. And the government registers you
to vote. So why must you buy copies of all these documents from the government and
take them to a government office in person to prove that you are a citizen? The SAVE
Act shifts the cost of what has been a government job onto private citizens and won’t
pay you for your time or pay these fees. Voting will be much more time-consuming and
expensive for you the voter. How does this differ from a poll tax?
How much additional “election security” will this hassle and expense buy us? Nationally,
10 years of intense search for non-citizen votes in federal elections have found only a
few dozen cases. Radio IQ reviewed 20 years (2003-2023) of election-related Virginia
criminal cases (680 total). They found no cases involving a non-citizen voting.
The SAVE Act would disenfranchise more rural Americans than urban and suburban
Americans, because we are less likely to have passports and must drive farther to get
and show official documents. We typically have less paid vacation time, less flexible
work schedules, and lower median incomes, so it will be harder for rural residents to
overcome these proposed barriers to voting. The SAVE Act will burden rural women the
most.
Maybe our senators don’t want to make life in rural Virginia any harder than it already is.

Data in this article is from the US Congress, Code of Virginia, Virginia Department of
Elections, Virginia Department of Health Vital Records, the American Community
Project, and Radio IQ.