We Need Saving From the SAVE Act

Americans are rightfully concerned about the potential passage of the SAVE Act. Their concern is reasonable; American voting rights are deeply in danger. More specifically, it is the low-income, rural, naturalized, and married U.S. citizens – women in particular – who are in danger of disenfranchisement. 

The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Proponents of the SAVE Act make it sound harmless: after all, we have to make sure voters are eligible citizens, don’t we? The truth is not so simple – and neither are the intentions of the SAVE Act and its supporters.

Predominantly Republican representatives who are in support of the bill throw around the phrase “voter fraud”, specifically by noncitizens or otherwise ineligible voters, to justify its passage. Voter fraud undermines the very principles of democracy and Republicanism that the United States was built on; hence, those found guilty of it face severe penalties under felony charges. Undoubtedly, voter fraud is undesirable – it does not, however, warrant the SAVE Act’s passage.

According to the Heritage Foundation, there have been a total of 1465 proven voter fraud cases since 1979 up to 2023. The number of voter fraud cases over the 40-year-period is far less than even 1% of the votes in the 2024 presidential election. Is it likely that this amount of proven cases – keeping in mind they were over a 40-year period – had a non-negligible effect on any election since 1979? It is very safe to say no. About 1,500 votes out of the hundreds of millions of votes over the span of 40 years likely had little to no effect on any election outcome.

Analyzing the raw numbers, it is hard to derive a real exigence for the SAVE Act that is grounded in voter fraud. This prompts the question: What is the purpose of the SAVE Act, if not to protect us from voter fraud? The likely reality is far less noble – with knowledge that women and low-income Americans frequently lean Democrat, critics argue that the policy could disproportionately disenfranchise them. In preparation for the midterm elections, rather than creating policies or rebranding for more mass or independent appeal, the current governing coalition seeks to remove a part of the opposition.

The new requirements for proof of citizenship that the SAVE Act could institute will make married individuals who opted to change their name ineligible to vote, since their new name would not match that of their birth certificate. Those affected would constitute approximately 69 million married women and 4 million married men, according to the Center for American Progress. Married individuals, however, are not the only ones in danger.

Those in danger also include low-income and rural citizens, who would have trouble procuring citizenship documents – like a passport, which far from every American citizen has – either for financial reasons, or due to the absence of a local federal office that would require extensive travel to acquire them. The SAVE Act solves an irrelevant problem, but imposes a requirement that would challenge the eligibility of millions of voters and currently eligible US citizens.

Put simply, the SAVE Act is a diluted attempt by an increasingly unpopular demographic of elected officials to retain offices. It is an act branded to “save” the United States and “democracy” from an exaggerated problem of voter fraud, but intended only to save the predominantly conservative incumbents whose seats could be in danger in the upcoming midterms.

Luckily, the passage of the SAVE Act is stalled under a procedural filibuster in the Senate, where its passage would require 60 votes in favor, with only 53 elected Republican Senators to support it. Moreover, two Senate Republicans - Mitch McConnell and Lisa Murkowski have not yet publicly backed the bill either, meaning the SAVE Act is far from passage for as long as the traditional filibuster rules remain in place.

For now, the saving that tens of millions of Americans could need from this act are being done by Democratic Senators. For as long as the holdout continues, Americans who value their right to vote but have recently changed their name or would have difficulty procuring citizenship documents can breathe freely. New tactics from incumbents to retain power, however, can be expected as midterm elections loom closer, and as odds grow steeper for those willing to curtail democracy to retain power.

Works Cited

Election Fraud Map: Election Fraud Database. Heritage Foundation, 2023, https://electionfraud.heritage.org/. Accessed 6 Mar. 2026.

The SAVE Act Would Disenfranchise Millions of Citizens, Center for American Progress, 31 Jan. 2025, www.americanprogress.org/article/the-save-act-would-disenfranchise-millions-of-citizens/.