S. 1383 · 119th Congress · Updated
The SAVE America Act
A plain-English guide to what this bill would change about registering and voting.
Summary
The SAVE America Act makes four key changes to federal voting
Changes for voters
Proof of citizenship to register
You would need to show documents proving U.S. citizenship before registering to vote.
Photo ID to vote
Voting in person in a federal election would require photo ID, and a regular driver's license would count.
Changes for governments
Voter-roll checks
States would have to send their voter lists to the Department of Homeland Security to identify and remove noncitizens.
Penalties for officials
Election officials could face lawsuits or criminal charges for accepting a registration without the required documents.
Proof of citizenship to register
To register to vote, you would need to show documents proving you are a U.S. citizen.
Proof of Citizenship
Proof of citizenship to register
Current law
Under current federal law, you register to vote by checking a box and signing a statement swearing you're a U.S. citizen. No documents are required.
What Changes
What the bill would require
The SAVE Act would change that. To register for a federal election, you would need to show documents proving U.S. citizenship. That could be a passport, or a photo ID paired with a birth certificate or naturalization certificate.
What Proof?
What would count?
Most people would likely use a passport, or a photo ID paired with another document that proves citizenship.
REAL ID license that says you are a U.S. citizen
Few states issue REAL IDs showing citizenship status
Valid U.S. passport
Military ID plus a service record with a U.S. birthplace
Government photo ID that lists a U.S. birthplace
Government photo ID plus another citizenship document, like a birth certificate or naturalization certificate
Common Situation
What if your name has changed?
This comes up most often after marriage, when someone's current name no longer matches the name on their birth certificate. If your citizenship document shows a different name, the state must still accept your registration, as long as you provide proof of the name change or sign a sworn statement that the prior name was yours.
Backup Path
What if you don't have the listed documents?
Each state must create a backup process for people who don't have the required documents. You would sign a sworn statement that you are a U.S. citizen and submit whatever other evidence you can. A state or local election official then decides whether it's enough.
Exception
Military voters living away from home
Military members and other uniformed-services voters who are stationed away from home are exempt from the proof-of-citizenship requirement.
What Proof?
What would count?
Most people would likely use a passport, or a photo ID paired with another document that proves citizenship.
REAL ID license that says you are a U.S. citizen
Few states issue REAL IDs showing citizenship status
Valid U.S. passport
Military ID plus a service record with a U.S. birthplace
Government photo ID that lists a U.S. birthplace
Government photo ID plus another citizenship document, like a birth certificate or naturalization certificate
Photo ID to vote
To vote in person, you would need a photo ID. A regular driver's license would count.
Photo ID
Photo ID to vote
Current law
There's no federal photo ID requirement for voting. States set their own voter ID rules, and many already require one.
Current state practice
25 states already require some form of photo ID to vote.
What Changes
What the bill would require
Under the bill, voters in federal elections would need a photo ID from a short list of accepted forms. Unlike the registration requirement, the ID doesn't have to show citizenship. A regular driver's license would work.
What ID?
What would count?
A regular driver's license would work. Unlike registration, the ID doesn't have to show citizenship.
State driver's license or state ID card with a photo and expiration date
Valid U.S. passport
Valid military ID
Tribal ID with a photo and expiration date
Missing ID
Provisional ballots
If you show up without a photo ID, you could still cast a provisional ballot. For it to count, you'd have 3 days to either present a valid photo ID or file a sworn statement citing a religious objection to being photographed.
Voting by Mail
Mail-in and absentee voting
Mail-in voters would need to include either a copy of a valid photo ID, or the last four digits of their Social Security number plus a signed statement saying they were unable to get a copy of their ID.
Military voters stationed away from home are exempt, as are certain elderly and disabled voters covered by an existing federal accessibility law.
What ID?
What would count?
A regular driver's license would work. Unlike registration, the ID doesn't have to show citizenship.
State driver's license or state ID card with a photo and expiration date
Valid U.S. passport
Valid military ID
Tribal ID with a photo and expiration date
Voter-roll checks
States would have to send their full voter lists to DHS for checking.
SAVE System
Maintaining the voter rolls
The bill creates a new verification process between states and the federal government: states send their voter lists to DHS, DHS checks them against citizenship and immigration records, and both sides must act on what they find.
States send their rolls to DHS
Within 30 days of the bill becoming law, states would have to send their complete voter lists to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS would run them through the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) system to flag possible noncitizens. This isn't entirely new: as of late 2025, at least 26 states have already signed or begun agreements with USCIS to do this voluntarily.6
More on the SAVE system
The SAVE system was created in 1986 to let government agencies check a person's immigration status one at a time, usually when someone applied for government benefits.
In 2025, under the Trump administration, USCIS updated SAVE to support voter verification. The key change was an updated System of Records Notice (SORN), published October 31, 2025, which expressly added voter verification and voter list maintenance as covered uses of the system.
DHS checks the list and follows up
If DHS finds a noncitizen on a state's voter list, it would have to investigate whether to begin deportation proceedings.
Ongoing Checks
States keep checking
States would have to continuously verify that only citizens remain on their voter lists.
Federal agencies answer within 24 hours
When a state election office asks a federal agency for citizenship records, the agency would have to respond within 24 hours, even for bulk requests.
Other Administrative Changes
Free places to copy IDs
States would have to make copiers or scanners available in government buildings, like libraries and courthouses, so people can copy their IDs for free.
DHS would notify states about new citizens
When someone becomes a naturalized citizen, DHS would have to notify that person's state election office, making it easier for new citizens to get on the voter lists.
Penalties for officials
Officials who register voters without proof of citizenship could face lawsuits or criminal charges.
Penalties
Penalties
The bill doesn't create a new enforcement system. It expands two tools already in federal voting law: private lawsuits and criminal charges.
Private right of action
Lawsuits against officials
Current law
People can already sue under the federal law when officials violate rules meant to protect voter access. For example, suing a state that fails to offer voter registration at the DMV. The remedy is a court order to fix the violation, not money damages.
What changes
The bill would let people use that same tool against election officials who register someone without the required proof of citizenship. The remedy is the same: a court order, not money damages.
Criminal Charges
Criminal penalties
Current law
- Knowingly intimidating or threatening voters
- Knowingly submitting false registrations or fraudulent ballots
What changes
- Certain executive-branch employees who knowingly help a noncitizen try to register or vote
- Election officials who knowingly register someone without the required citizenship documents
Big Picture
The overall effect
Federal enforcement tools that historically focused on protecting voter access and punishing fraud would now also be used to penalize officials who accept registrations without the required documents.
How common is noncitizen voting?
Noncitizen voting
How often does it happen?
Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal. The question is whether the problem is big enough to justify the costs and added requirements of this bill.
What audits usually find
Most audits and post-election reviews find that noncitizen voting appears in isolated cases, but at extremely low rates. Generally well below 0.01% of ballots cast (1 out of 10,000), and in some reviews around 0.0001% (1 out of 1,000,000) or lower.
For example, Michigan's 2024 review found 15 noncitizens who appeared to have cast ballots out of more than 5.7 million votes. Georgia's 2024 audit found 20 noncitizens on the rolls and 9 with prior voting histories, on a voter roll of about 8.2 million.
There's no single national number. The best evidence comes from state-level audits and reviews.
Research
Dive deeper into the evidence
Below are national-level studies and data sources. Expand any card to see the details.
Policy is about trade-offs, not solutions.
Trade-offs
Balancing pros and cons
The bill would make it harder for noncitizens to vote. But it comes with real costs, which are outlined below.
Some eligible voters may give up
Many eligible citizens don't have these documents on hand. For some, the time and money needed to get them could outweigh the motivation to vote.
More direct costs for voters
A first-time passport costs $165. Certified birth certificate copies often cost $10–$30. Some eligible voters will have to spend extra money to exercise a right they already have.
More work for election offices
State-level election offices would have to review documents, handle exceptions, keep extra records, and coordinate with federal agencies. That means more staff time and administrative cost for agencies already lacking in both.
More voter data shared with DHS
Every state's full voter list would go to DHS, not just records of suspected noncitizens. The bill sets no clear limits on how long that data can be kept or reused.
Good or bad?
Voter registration tied more closely to immigration enforcement
The bill would make state voter registration records a source of leads for federal immigration enforcement. Supporters see this as common sense. Critics argue it turns a system built to encourage civic participation into a tool for immigration enforcement.
Is preventing a small number of illegal votes worth the added burden, cost, and government data sharing this bill would require?
That's for each voter to decide.
Endnotes
- Center for American Progress, “The SAVE Act Would Disenfranchise Millions of Citizens”, January 2025. Estimates 53.1% of U.S. citizens hold a valid passport, based on State Department issuance data summed over 10 years against citizen population.
- YouGov, “Passports and Beliefs” survey, May 2025 (n=1,118 U.S. adult citizens, ±4% MOE). Income categories are household income.
- MIT Election Lab, 2024 Survey of the Performance of American Elections (n=10,000+ registered voters); race/ethnicity analysis via Bipartisan Policy Center.
- YouGov, “Passports and Beliefs” survey, May 2025. Passport ownership by party identification.
- U.S. Department of State, passport fees schedule (2025).
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “USCIS Enhances Voter Verification Systems”, November 3, 2025.
- Department of Homeland Security, “Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records,” DHS/USCIS-004 Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program System of Records, 90 Fed. Reg. 93888 (October 31, 2025). Covers retention schedule (10 years after verification completion), routine uses permitting disclosure to DHS contractors and other DHS components, and the longstanding IRCA-derived limitation against use for administrative (non-criminal) immigration enforcement.
- Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, S. 1383, 119th Cong. § 2 (Engrossed Amendment House), amending National Voter Registration Act § 8(j)(5)(D), requiring DHS to investigate whether to initiate removal proceedings when federal information establishes that a noncitizen is unlawfully registered to vote.
- Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), Pub. L. 99-603, § 121(c), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1320b-7(a), requiring that information exchanged through the system be made available only to the extent necessary to assist in the valid administrative needs of the program and be adequately safeguarded against unauthorized disclosure.
- Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, providing individuals with rights to access and request correction of federal agency records maintained about them, subject to exemptions.
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, SAVE program voter-verification guidance (current as of March 2026), stating that agencies may not deny registration or remove a person from the rolls until SAVE-required verification steps are complete and the individual has had an opportunity to present proof of citizenship.
This report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Content is based on the bill text as introduced.