This article was published by Newsweek
By Mandy Taheri
As President Donald Trump renews pressure on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, questions are mounting over whether the bill could be enacted and implemented in time to affect voter registration and election administration ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Trump used a Thursday night address on election security to again urge lawmakers to approve the measure, arguing it is necessary to protect the integrity of U.S. elections. “This crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the SAVE America Act,” he said, adding, “How easy is that to do? Unless you want to cheat.”
The bill would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and photo identification to cast a ballot. Supporters say it would prevent noncitizens from voting, while critics say it would create new hurdles for eligible voters who lack easy access to documents such as passports, birth certificates or naturalization papers.
Voting-rights advocates and Democrats have warned that the SAVE Act could make voter registration more difficult for some eligible Americans, potentially decrease voter turnout and amount to federal overreach. The legislation has drawn support from advocates of tighter eligibility verification. While many Republicans are in support of the core measure, some have also raised concerns about the feasibility of implementing it ahead of the midterms, and some who represent more rural areas argue mail-in voting limits could negatively impact constituents.
But a second question is looming over the debate: whether the measure could realistically affect the 2026 midterms. The House passed an expanded version of the bill in February, but the measure has not cleared the Senate, where most legislation requires 60 votes to advance.
Critics of the legislation argue that even renewed attention from Trump could create challenges for state and local election officials. "The SAVE Act has one main goal: to change the outcomes of elections by keeping people from voting," Hannah Fried, co-founder and chief executive officer of All Voting is Local, told Newsweek in an email.
"The president's renewed obsession with the SAVE Act, just two months before voting starts for the 2026 midterms, creates enormous challenges for state and local election officials who are already stretched thin in their important work to keep our elections running smoothly, count our votes, and certify elections in accordance with the U.S. Constitution and state laws," she added.
Supporters of the measure reject those concerns. GOP Senator Mike Lee, a lead sponsor of the Senate legislation, has argued that the bill would "end foreign election interference in America."
What is the SAVE Act?
The SAVE America Act—SAVE stands for "Safeguard American Voter Eligibility"—would introduce nationwide voter identification requirements.
Specifically, the bill would require individuals to present proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, when registering to vote in federal elections, and a photo ID to vote. A broader form of the bill could also eliminate mail-in ballots, with exemptions for "illness, disability, military or travel."
Trump has continually urged Congress to pass the SAVE Act, at times saying he would withhold his signature from other legislation until lawmakers advance the measure.
Supporters, including Trump and some Republican lawmakers, argue the act is needed to ensure election integrity and prevent noncitizen voting—an extremely rare occurrence—according to 2025 research by the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
Representative Ben Cline, a Virginia Republican, said in a Thursday X post, “Passing the SAVE America Act is more important than ever. The American people deserve the security of knowing their elections are safe from foreign interference, and the SAVE America Act ensures our elections are for Americans, by Americans.”
Those against the act, largely Democrats and voting rights advocates, warn that the requirements could create barriers for eligible voters, particularly those who lack easy access to citizenship documents.
“If passed, the SAVE Act would intentionally keep millions of eligible voters from casting a ballot,” Fried told Newsweek. “Likewise, millions of women whose married names aren’t on their birth certificates or passports would face extra steps just to vote.”
Research published by the Brennan Center for Justice, VoteRiders, the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland and Public Wise in June 2024 found that an estimated 21.3 million U.S. citizens of voting age—about 9 percent of the eligible voting-age population—do not have documentary proof of citizenship, such as a U.S. passport, birth certificate or naturalization certificate, readily available. The study also found that at least 3.8 million citizens do not have those documents at all, often because they were lost, stolen or destroyed.
David Becker, executive director and founder of the center for election innovation and research, told Newsweek, “The proposed SAVE Act, whatever it looks like at this point, won’t have any effect on the midterms, because it is not going to pass Congress.”
He added, “It never had the votes it needs, and Congress is not going to pass sweeping legislation to nationalize elections only 3.5 months before a major midterm election.”
The House passed the SAVE Act earlier this year, but a version of the bill has failed to clear the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a Thursday X post, “Not now. Not ever. The SAVE Act is dead on arrival in the United States Senate.”
What the SAVE Act Would Change
The SAVE Act “makes voting more complicated for eligible Americans and creates barriers that many voters are unprepared for,” Celina Stewart, CEO of League of Women Voters, told Newsweek in an email Friday.
If passed, “The impact of these changes would be significant. These proposals create heightened barriers for eligible voters who already have the right to participate in our elections. The people most likely to be affected are married women who changed their names, military families, rural voters, older Americans, and others who may not have easy access to citizenship documents,” she added.
Stewart also said that “Practically speaking, voters would likely experience confusion and heightened barriers to participation.”
If enacted, the SAVE Act would primarily affect people registering to vote in federal elections. Existing voters generally would not be required to re-register, though those who move and need to update their registration are likely to be subject to the new requirements.
In addition to requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, the SAVE Act would require states to take additional steps to identify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls and would expose election officials to new legal penalties for failing to comply with the law's requirements.
Has the SAVE Act Passed the Senate?
Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. Although the House passed a version of the SAVE Act in February, the measure has struggled to gain enough support in the Senate, where most legislation must clear a 60-vote threshold to advance.
In June, Senate Republicans attempted to attach the SAVE Act to an immigration funding package, but the effort fell short of the votes needed to advance. Representative Chip Roy, the lead House sponsor, said in an X post Thursday, “President Trump is exactly right. We need to pass Rep. Roy’s SAVE America Act. The House has passed it FOUR times now. The Senate must act. Inaction is not an option.”
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, along with GOP Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitch McConnell, joined Democrats to strike down an effort to attach the bill to the nearly $70 billion package geared toward funding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
Murkowski said at the time of her vote, "I support voter ID-- but oppose the SAVE Act." In an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News, she wrote, "Registering by mail would likely go away unless and until states can find ways to comply with these new federal requirements. The SAVE America Act would also make it more difficult to vote by mail, something more than 40,000 Alaskans did in the last presidential election."
“It is beyond EMBARRASSING that ‘Republicans’ continue to block the SAVE America Act,” Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, a fellow Republican, wrote on X following the vote. The four senators voting against the bill “have not only betrayed their constituents—they are ACCOMPLICES in Democrats’ ‘Illegals First’ agenda. The people of North Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky, and Maine deserve better,” he added.
What Has Senator Thom Tillis Said About the SAVE Act?
Tillis, who is not running for reelection, has been vocal about the act. “Unless they do the work to get to the 60 votes, they know it’s dead, and so all this is theater,” Tillis told The News & Observer this month. He has repeatedly told the upper chamber to move on to other priorities.
While Lee has said that if the bill is passed soon, it could be implemented for the midterms, Tillis has told reporters, “Do y’all have any idea how many governmental entities have to implement these changes before November? More than 10,000. … If we had passed this last year, it couldn’t have been implemented in time."
In March, Tillis said that he was “going to do everything I can to prevent it from even moving forward.” He argued that if fellow Republicans were “serious” about voter ID, they should have considered legislation incentivizing states to use the practice in exchange for federal funding. Otherwise, that money would have gone toward ensuring “election integrity” oversight.
Is Proof of Citizenship Required for Voting in Other Countries?
Citizenship is a requirement for voting in national elections in many democracies, but the way governments verify eligibility varies widely.
In Canada, voters must certify that they are Canadian citizens and prove their identity and address, while election officials maintain a permanent National Register of Electors using government records. In Australia, eligible citizens must enroll and vote, and applicants can verify their identity using a driver’s license, passport, Medicare card, citizenship number or another enrolled voter.
In Germany, Bundestag elections are conducted by eligible German citizens, while France automatically registers many 18-year-olds and people who obtain French nationality. The comparison to other countries is complicated by the fact that the United States does not have the same kind of national population or electoral registry used in some other democracies.
###