LWVUS Joins Letter to House Opposing the SAVE Act

The League joined over 100 other organizations in writing to House members in strong opposition to H.R. 22, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.

Dear Representative,   

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States, and the 108 undersigned organizations, we strongly urge you to oppose H.R. 22, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.  

The SAVE Act represents a shameful, divisive attempt to prevent millions of eligible U.S. citizens — disproportionately Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and other voters of color — from registering to vote. It amends the National Voter Registration Act to require onerous documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and contains numerous other harmful provisions designed to restrict participation by lawfully registered voters.  

As our nation commemorates the 60th anniversaries of Bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights Act, far too many communities are still excluded from participating in our democracy. Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), 31 states have enacted 114 restrictive voting laws, which disproportionately burden voters of color. The harm to communities of color has been palpable: Racial disparities in voter turnout have been increasing, particularly in areas formerly protected by the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance provision, which the Court dismantled in Shelby County.   

The SAVE Act perpetuates a particularly heinous version of the voter fraud myth and, like other lies that provide the predicate for voter suppression while claiming to pursue “election integrity,” is a solution in search of a problem that cynically trades on dangerous myths and stereotypes. This bill is based on misinformation that exploits the demographic fear stoked by those afraid of the fully inclusive, multiracial democracy the United States can and must become, and it erects a significant, unnecessary barrier to the ballot for many citizen voters. The legislation turns Congress’s constitutional responsibility to safeguard free and fair elections on its head in order to advance a false narrative that the changes in the U.S. population — including continued growth of Latino, Asian American, Native American, and communities of color more broadly — are a threat. This narrative is blatantly false, and it is one that must be rebuked strongly. 

Our nation has strict laws and effective safeguards in place to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in federal elections, and every serious analysis conducted has concluded that allegations of widespread noncitizen voting lack any basis in fact. Current laws include criminal penalties, fines, and possible deportation. It defies common sense that undocumented immigrants would risk losing their freedom and their families just to cast a single ballot.   

One of the SAVE Act’s most devastating harms will be the intimidation or chilling of citizens in immigrant communities and communities of color from exercising their lawful right to vote. These communities are already unfairly targeted by anti-immigrant policies at the federal, state, and local levels, particularly under the policies of the current Trump administration. In advance of the 2024 election, state and local officials took actions against immigrant communities, falsely claiming that undocumented immigrants were registered to vote. For example, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last year raided the homes of longstanding members of the nonpartisan League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) under the guise that they were unlawfully registering ineligible voters.  

The SAVE Act makes it difficult for all American citizens to register and vote, but its impact would be especially severe for communities of color. Research released in 2024 by the University of Maryland's Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement (CDCE), VoteRiders, and the Brennan Center for Justice revealed the stark reality that U.S. citizens of color were three times more likely than white citizens to lack documents such as U.S. birth certificates, passports, naturalization certificates, or certificates of citizenship — or face difficulties accessing them. For example, while approximately half of American adults possess a passport, two-thirds of Black Americans do not.   

Adding to that burden is that proof of citizenship is not a one-time requirement. The SAVE Act requires submission of citizenship documentation every time someone registers to vote, forcing voters who move and seek to register in another location to provide documentation they may lack or cannot access easily. This requirement would also greatly hinder voter registration drives and other efforts, which is an important avenue to ensure eligible voters are registering in time to be able to cast a ballot, especially for communities of color. Notably, when Kansas enacted a similar law, more than 31,000 otherwise eligible U.S. citizens — 12 percent of applicants — were blocked from registering. If enacted, the SAVE Act would replicate this law nationwide, likely preventing millions from registering. 

The SAVE Act is also certain to produce systematic voter purges, threatening to disenfranchise citizens who are lawfully registered to vote. Importantly, the SAVE Act does not require notification of registered voters before they are removed from voting rolls — rolling back one of the essential protections of the National Voter Registration Act. And states in search of “noncitizen voters” have recently engaged in overbroad purges, which ensnared eligible voters and especially naturalized citizen voters. For example, Alabama’s secretary of state instructed county registrars in 2024 to remove more than 3,000 registered voters who had ever received “noncitizen identification numbers” by the Department of Homeland Security. Lawsuits by civil rights organizations and the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that the purge included more than 2,000 citizens who were lawfully registered to vote.  

Instead of proceeding with this legislation, Congress should take actions to ensure free and full access to the ballot so that all Americans can have a voice in the decision-making that impacts their daily lives, their freedoms, and their futures. These include passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, the Native American Voting Rights Act, and the DC Statehood bill. We urge you to vote against H.R. 22. The Leadership Conference intends to include your position on H.R. 22 in our voting record for the 119th Congress.