The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would completely upend the way Americans cast ballots in federal elections by requiring them to prove their citizenship — in person — before registering to vote.
Republicans first introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in 2024, when Donald Trump and his allies were baselessly claiming that Democrats would steal the election by encouraging noncitizens to vote, and they reintroduced the bill earlier this year after now-President Trump signed a similar executive order. Thursday's 220-to-208 House vote was split almost entirely along party lines, with every Republican voting in favor of the SAVE Act and just four Democrats joining them.
At first glance, the idea that people should have to prove their citizenship in order to participate in elections for the House, the Senate and the presidency seems… uncontroversial. After all, it's already illegal for noncitizens to vote. Why not take the extra step of requiring documentation to stop someone from slipping through the cracks?
But critics say that if the SAVE Act is implemented, it would solve a problem that barely exists — only to create much, much bigger problems for tens of millions of Americans in the process.
Here’s a quick explainer to help you understand both sides of the argument, and what could happen next.
How does registering to vote currently work?
Right now, registering to vote in federal elections — or updating your registration after a move, a name change or a shift in party affiliation — is relatively easy. Depending on where you live, you can always go to your local Department of Motor Vehicles office and do things the old-fashioned way. But these days you can also register by mail, fax, email or the internet.
Wherever and however you register, federal law currently requires you to provide either the last four digits of your Social Security number or your driver's license number on your application. Election officials then use state and federal data — including citizenship data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration — to verify your identity and eligibility.
About 80 million voters register or update their registration during every two-year federal election cycle.
How would registering to vote change under the SAVE Act?
The SAVE Act would flip all of this on its head, putting the onus on you to convince the government that you're eligible. So instead of registering, say, online — a convenience that 42 states currently offer — Americans nationwide would now have to physically present "documentary proof of United States citizenship in person to the office of the appropriate election official," according to the text of the bill.
What documents would qualify as proof of citizenship?
The two big ones are a "valid United States passport" or a "certified birth certificate." The rest — including records of birth, adoption decrees and naturalization papers that meet specific requirements — can be found here.
What about a driver’s license?
Nope. Driver's licenses — including most REAL IDs — as well military or tribal IDs would not be sufficient, on their own, to prove citizenship. For instance, the SAVE Act says that a REAL ID is fine… as long as it "indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States." But there is no federal requirement for REAL IDs to do that — and no state's actual REAL ID card does. So even if you wanted to use a REAL ID, you'd have to bring your birth certificate, passport or some other document along, too. The same goes for military and tribal IDs. Only five states — Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington — offer special "enhanced" driver's licenses that show citizenship status.
Would online/mail registration vanish entirely?
Not quite. Depending on where you live, you could still submit your voter registration application online (or via email, or at registration drive). But to finalize it, you would have to physically transport yourself and your documents to an election office and get the right official to sign off in person before your state's registration deadline (whether that's Election Day or earlier). And remember: you'd have to go through the same process for any registration updates as well (like changes in address, name or party affiliation).
OK, I have a passport. I’m pretty sure I can find my birth certificate. This doesn’t sound like such a big deal.
Good for you! But it won't be so easy for everyone. According to U.S. State Departmentinformation, roughly half of all American citizens — 146 million in total — don't have valid passports, and they're disproportionately working-class residents of red states.
Overall, about 21 million U.S. citizens don't have the right documents readily available, and nearly 4 million citizens don't have any proof at all, according to recent survey results gathered by the Brennan Center for Justice and other organizations.
Then there’s the notion of validity to consider. For a birth certificate to be deemed valid, it has to match your current legal name. But what if you changed your name sometime after birth — like when you got married?
According to survey data from Pew Research Center and an analysis by the Center for American Progress, a liberal group that opposes the SAVE Act, about 69 million married women nationwide (and about 4 million married men) could not use their birth certificates as proof of citizenship for this very reason. Many transgender men and women would be affected, too.
The list goes on. About 60 million Americans live in rural areas; residents of the 30 largest countries across the Western U.S. would have to drive an average of 260 miles to reach their "local" election office and present their papers. In Hawaii and Alaska, some citizens would be forced to fly. And Americans who can't leave work during business hours or rely on public transit could face similar challenges.
Finally, what about enforcement? Under the SAVE Act, election officials would face major new verification hurdles — and possible lawsuits if things go wrong. In 2013, Kansas started requiring proof of citizenship from voters — then blocked 30,000 applicants for failing to provide it. But a state expert eventually conceded that most of these would-be voters were, in fact, citizens, and in 2018 a federal court declared the state law unconstitutional.
But at least the SAVE Act will stop lots of noncitizens from voting… right?
Depends how you define “lots.”
In 2017, the Brennan Center for Justice examined how the previous year's election played out across 42 jurisdictions and reported that election officials found only about 30 cases of potential noncitizen voting — out of 23.5 million total votes cast.
In 2024, Georgia audited its voter rolls and discovered fewer than 2,000 instances of noncitizens attempting to register to vote over the last quarter century — none of which succeeded. Millions of new Georgia voters successfully registered over the same period.
The issue with noncitizen voting is that if you’re caught, you can be fined and imprisoned for up to a year. You can also be deported. When people register to vote, they confirm under penalty of perjury that they’re U.S. citizens — leaving a paper trail that officials are required by law to routinely review. That’s a big risk to take for a single vote.
Experts say that when noncitizens do vote, it's typically a misunderstanding or mistake.
Will the SAVE Act become law?
Not necessarily. It still has to pass the U.S. Senate, which would require all 53 Republican senators to vote for it — along with at least 7 Democrats.