Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (also known as the SAVE Act).
What is it?
This is a bill to make sure that only US citizens vote in federal elections. The bill was passed by the US House of Representatives (220-208); but has not yet been taken up by the US Senate.
Of course, all of us want only US citizens to vote. Does this bill help us with that goal? Noncitizen voting has been a federal crime since 1996, carrying serious penalties including fines, imprisonment, and deportation. The SAVE Act adds a layer of documentation for anyone registering to vote in a federal election; so every time you move or when you are a first time voter, you would need to provide those documents at a local election office. This a big burden for a solution to a problem that is effectively non-existent. So no, this bill does not help to ensure that only US citizens are voting in US elections.
Why is the SAVE Act burdensome?
For most of us, qualifying documents would be: 1) a valid US passport or passport card, or 2) a government-issued photo ID and one of the following: a) a certified birth certificate, b) a naturalization certificate, or c) a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. If your name does not match across those documents (for example, many married women), additional paperwork such as a marriage certificate would be required. This does not even touch on the additional burden (time and risk of criminality) placed on local election officials for frequent mandatory reviews of election rolls and of approving presented documents.
Is noncitizen voting a problem?
The most comprehensive citizenship review was conducted by Utah, examining more than 2 million registered voters. They found one confirmed instance of noncitizen registration and zero instances of noncitizen voting. Federal data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services shows that just 0.04% of voter verification cases flag as potential noncitizens, and many of these had already provided proof of citizenship. This corresponds to 400 possible problems in one million voters. How might this level of problem have affected the 2020 Georgia presidential results. There were 4,935,487 votes: 2,473,633 for Biden and 2,461,854 for Trump, a difference of 11,779 votes in favor of Biden. If there was 0.04% voter fraud in this election, that would have corresponded to 1,974 votes – not enough to affect the outcome of this unusually close election. Noncitizen voting is currently not a problem in the US.
Does this SAVE Act provide the solution to noncitizens voting?
There isn’t any evidence to indicate that there is a problem with noncitizens voting, which has been a federal crime since 1996. If there isn’t a problem, then the Act doesn’t provide a solution. Married women (with last names different from a birth certificate), rural Americans, young and first-time voters, low-income voters, and brown and black people will bear the biggest burdens of this Act. A lot of US citizens will be pushed off the voter roll.
Why is the SAVE Act important to some Republican legislators?
The plain answer is fealty to a president. This Act can be used as a political issue that sounds relevant in the context of fears about immigrants.
Resources
The current bill approved by the US House of Representatives: H.R. 22 An Act
The SAVE Act: What every American Needs to Know