Let’s Do This: What Exactly Is the SAVE Act, and What Are Its Chances of Becoming Law?
Let’s take a look
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act for short, has received what seems—at least to me—a surprising amount of attention in the media over the past month or so. Donald Trump says that passing it will “guarantee the midterms“ for Republicans, while Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calls it “Jim Crow 2.0.”
But what is actually in this act, and what are it’s chances of becoming federal law? Also, what is Trump doing to try and get it across the finish line, and what action can you take to oppose it? In this article, I take a look at all of these questions.
What is actually in the SAVE Act?
For starters, let’s look at what the SAVE Act would actually do.
The first thing to know is that the SAVE Act, like all legislation that is still in process, is not static. There have been different versions of the bill, and it is changed somewhat regularly.
Overall, the bill aims to put significant new documentation requirements on registering to vote, as well as institute voter identification laws nationwide. The goal, ostensibly, is to prevent noncitizens from voting. In order to accomplish this, according to the Brennan Center of Justice, which opposes the bill, “[i]n every form, the SAVE Act would require American citizens to show documents like a passport or birth certificate to register to vote.”
The SAVE Act does a few more things, too:
The legislation would trigger major changes to how Americans vote, including requiring voters to present proof of citizenship to register, eliminating mail-only registrations, and requiring photo ID in every state for the first time. It would also require states to take new steps to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls.
There are differing claims as to how many people the proof of citizenship requirement would disenfranchise. Some estimates, which I believe are unhelpful exaggerations, imply that it would disenfranchise over 70 million people. A more reasonable estimate comes from the Bipartisan Policy Center, which looked at what happened in Kansas when a similar law was passed in that state:
Kansas offers a case study of how a documentary proof requirement would likely play out in practice. Before the law took effect, noncitizen registration in Kansas was exceedingly rare, accounting for about 0.002% of registered voters. After adoption, the documentary proof of citizenship requirement prevented roughly 31,000 eligible citizens, or 12% of all applicants, from registering to vote. In short, the law prevented far more citizens from registering to vote than noncitizens.
In short, the SAVE Act could result in rejection for roughly one out of every eight people who attempt to register to vote. The bill would not impact those already registered to vote much at all. Also, it would only result in a change from the status quo in blue and some purple states, as laws akin to the SAVE Act are already law in many red states.
Even so, it would result in a significant increase in the number of people who are unable to register to vote.
What are the chances of the SAVE Act becoming federal law?
On February 11, the SAVE Act passed the House 218-213. It has not yet been acted upon by the Senate, where it would require 60 votes in order to be sent to Donald Trump’s desk.
Republicans do not have the votes to make this happen. There are 53 Republicans in the Senate, and Sen. Jon Fetterman of Pennsylvania is the only Democrat supportive of the measure.
That leaves Republicans six votes short, with their majority in the Senate likely to decrease next year (and disappear entirely in the House of Representatives).
In theory, Republicans could change Senate rules so that the bill is not subject to the 60-vote requirement. However, that would require the support of 50 Republican senators plus Vice President J.D. Vance, and Republicans are “not even close“ to having the votes to make that happen.
What are conservative Republicans and Donald Trump doing to try and get the SAVE Act passed?
The hardest core supporters of the SAVE Act, led by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, are urging Republicans to change Senate rules to force Democrats to block the SAVE Act via a “talking filibuster,” rather than just voting against it. You may be familiar with this idea, as it the sort of filibuster that Jimmy Stewart’s “Mr. Smith” character uses in the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. You may also remember progressives pushing for this idea during President Obama’s first term.
Elon Musk and other prominent right-wing influencers are in support of Lee’s push for a talking filibuster, and have urged their followers to contact their Senators in favor of it. Donald Trump has taken things a step further, and vowed that he will not sign any bills into law until Republicans pass not only the SAVE Act, but a ramped up version that would greatly restrict mail-in voting and also impact entirely unrelated issues on transgender rights. Notably, Trump has already backed off this claim at least in part, indicating that he would sign a bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security.
Despite this pressure, Republican Majority Leader John Thune, as well as the majority of Republican senators, are not budging, and indicating that they are fine taking the heat from their own grassroots. They argue that the talking filibuster won’t actually result in the passage of the bill, and will instead just allow Democrats to gum up the works in the Senate indefinitely (this is probably true, as Sen. Cory Booker demonstrated last year).
I have to say, this is all very reminiscent of the sort of infighting that happens to Democrats roughly one year after they win a presidential election.
What can you do to oppose the SAVE Act?
To give you a way to oppose the SAVE Act, Bowers Kerbel Media (the organization that operates Wolves and Sheep and the Bowers News Media news and activism email list) has joined up with a coalition of other pro-democracy organizations in a grassroots letter campaign to U.S. senators opposing the bill. The form is pretty easy to use, and contains a pre-written letter that allows you to complete the action in only about a minute.
Please read the notes below if you have any questions about the letter campaign. If you would rather sign a petition than send a letter to your U.S. senators, you can do so by clicking here.
Notes:
Sending these letters may result in receiving emails from allied Democratic and progressive organizations.
You may want to slightly alter the subject line and letter text, so as to make your message look original to your members of Congress.
You do not have to use the pre-written letter. You can also write your own letter if you wish.
In order to send your letter, you will have to choose a topic. However, topic lists are maintained by each congressional office, and thus I do not know which topics you will have to choose from. You will have to use your best judgement.
After you send your letters, you will be redirected to an ActBlue page for Bowers Kerbel Media. However, no donation is required, and if you see this page your letters have already been sent.