WASHINGTON — The House passed a bill on Thursday seeking to ban noncitizens from voting in federal elections, following through with a key campaign promise President Donald Trump made during the 2024 election cycle.
Lawmakers voted 220-208 to approve the measure, with four Democrats joining all Republicans despite party leaders saying the bill would disenfranchise millions of voters. However, the future of the bill remains uncertain, as the Senate version, led by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, would require a number of Democrats in the Senate to buck party leadership.
Still, Republicans are lauding the bill’s passage as a victory.
“The House of Representatives just passed my SAVE Act with (Rep. Chip Roy), requiring proof of citizenship to register and vote in federal elections,” Lee said in a post on X. “One step closer to secure elections. Democrats are not happy.”
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE Act, would require proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. The bill would specifically require voters to provide identification that is compliant with the most recent REAL ID guidelines, a passport, or some other citizenship document.
For any identification card that does not include birthplace or citizenship status, the voter must also provide a birth certificate, a naturalization certificate, an adoption decree, or some document that proves he or she was born in the United States.
It’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and can lead to felony charges or deportation. Such instances of noncitizens voting is rare and often done by mistake, according to recent studies.
Still, Trump made election integrity a key priority for his second administration, even going so far as signing a sweeping executive order last month that included a citizenship requirement.
Still, it’s not clear if the legislation will have momentum in the Senate. The House previously passed the SAVE Act last year but it was never brought to the floor by Senate Democratic leadership, who controlled the chamber at the time.
Despite winning the Senate in November, Republicans still have a slim majority that is not filibuster-proof — meaning at least seven Democrats would need to cross party lines to guarantee a vote.
That seems increasingly unlikely as Democrats and voting rights advocates argue the bill would disenfranchise voters who don’t have proof of citizenship readily available.
More than 9% of voters in the U.S. do not have citizenship documents on hand, amounting to about 21.3 million people, according to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice. That can especially affect married women who changed their last names, the study shows.
Roy, who led the House version of the bill, pushed back against those accusations, claiming married women would not lose their current registration.
“The truth is, those who were registered to vote would still be able to vote,”he said. “We have mechanisms giving the state fairly significant deference to make determinations as to how to structure the situation where an individual does have a name change, which of course is often women.”
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