Statement: The Voter Participation Center Condemns the House Passage of the SAVE America ACT, Urge Senators to Vote No
The Voter Participation Center (VPC) strongly condemns the House’s passage of the SAVE America Act – an extreme voter suppression bill disguised as election security. We urge the Senate to reject this dangerous legislation, and stand against clear disenfranchisement of tens of millions of eligible American voters.
The SAVE America Act revives the anti-voter provisions in the 2025 “SAVE Act”. This legislation claims to solve the non-existent problem of “noncitizen voting” by creating a federal standard for proving citizenship during voter registration. Noncitizen voting is already illegal and exceedingly rare. States have proven safeguards in place. This bill is manufactured hysteria designed to restrict voting rights.
What this bill actually does:
- Forces all Americans to provide documentary proof of citizenship in person to register to vote or update their registration.
- Accepts only a narrow list of documents (passport or notarized birth certificate) while rejecting driver’s licenses, standard REAL IDs, military IDs, and tribal IDs.
- Eliminates mail and online registration, making it nearly impossible for nonpartisan organizations to conduct voter registration drives.
- Creates brutal barriers for rural voters who may need to travel hours to register in person.
These strict proof of citizenship requirements would negatively impact and disenfranchise American citizens, 21 million of which do not currently have access to documentary proof of citizenship. The negative effects of the SAVE America Act would also disproportionately impact already underrepresented groups like women, people of color, trans individuals, and young people.
The Senate must reject this attack on voting rights for eligible Americans.
“We are deeply disappointed that the House of Representatives revived a harmful voter suppression bill, instead of working to protect the right of eligible Americans to vote. The SAVE America Act will make it harder for eligible Americans to register and vote. Thankfully, there is still time to change course. Our senators, regardless of party, must speak up and make it clear that voter suppression has no place in our elections,” said Tom Lopach, President and CEO of the Voter Participation Center (VPC), “The right to vote is not a partisan issue. The House of Representatives has chosen to normalize voter suppression and conspiracy theories about noncitizen voting. The Senate still has a chance to stop this legislation dead in its tracks and affirm that elections are a contest of ideas, not a contest of who gets to vote.”
The Voter Participation Center is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing civic engagement and closing voter registration and turnout gaps. Since 2003, VPC has helped register millions of voters—particularly among historically underrepresented communities—and continues to run the nation’s largest mail-based and digital voter engagement programs.