It’s Time For Congress To Ban Noncitizen Voting

American elections should be decided by American voters. That’s the basic principle behind the SAVE Act (HR 22), a landmark bill in the U.S. House of Representatives meant to require proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. That’s something most Americans — even most liberal voters — agree on. 

But Congressional Democrats don’t seem to care. They killed the SAVE Act last year and seem intent on doing so again. Along with so-called “democracy” activists and liberal pundits in the press, Democratic elected officials are working overtime to scare Americans into opposing a commonsense bill.

The public shouldn’t fall for it. The SAVE Act, first introduced last year by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), amends existing law to require that states obtain proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote in federal elections. A wide range of IDs would be acceptable, including a birth certificate, a passport, or a military ID. That is the same basic requirement Americans are already complying with when they get a REAL ID.

The SAVE Act would help solve a clear problem. Right now, voter registration operates on an honor system. Thanks to years of Left-wing litigation, courts have interpreted federal law to prevent states from proving citizenship. To get on a voter roll, all a noncitizen needs to do is check a box asking if he or she is a citizen.

That’s no hypothetical danger. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice charged 19 noncitizens with illegally registering and voting as recently as 2016. Just a few days ago, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced 15 noncitizens voted there in 2024. Last year, states like Ohio, Texas, and Virginia all found significant numbers of noncitizens on their voter rolls, and state officials say many appear to have voted in recent years. Those figures may not sway a presidential election, but there are numerous races each year decided by a few votes — sometimes even just one. That is not the point, though. Each of these illegal votes represents a lawful American citizen whose voice was unfairly cancelled out. Lawmakers have a duty to prevent that.

Democrats label the SAVE Act redundant because federal law already makes it illegal for noncitizens to vote. But those same Democrats seem more interested in undercutting that law than enforcing it. When Virginia tried to remove 1,500 self-identified noncitizens from its rolls, the Biden Administration sued to keep them on the voter rolls for the 2024 election. Progressive politicians handed the vote to illegal aliens in Washington, D.C., and New York City spent years defending a noncitizen voting law that New York’s highest court just tossed out as patently unconstitutional.

The attacks on the bill only get more absurd from there. Progressives argue that the SAVE Act will stop married women from voting if they change their names. Hardly. Marriage wasn’t invented yesterday, and every state has processes for handling name changes on official documents. Plus, the bill specifically accommodates voters with discrepancies in their identification.

Nor will the bill stop citizens from voting merely because they lack routine forms of ID. The SAVE Act includes provisions to deal with this, too. Of course, critics still baselessly assert that the bill will ban huge numbers of citizens from voting. But they have said the same about voter ID laws for decades, and those warnings never came true.

One of the big beneficiaries of the SAVE Act will be the election officials we task with ensuring the security of our elections and verifying the eligibility of voters. Not only does the bill give them new tools to screen out ineligible noncitizens before they can register and vote, it also guarantees access to federal databases that will help keep voter rolls clean and accurate.

Another will be the voting public. Citizenship requirements are extraordinarily popular. Indeed, a recent Gallup survey found an incredible 83% of Americans believe that proof of citizenship should be required when registering to vote. Eight states voted to enshrine citizen-only voting in their state constitutions last year alone. Americans deserve to know that noncitizens are not voting in our elections.

The SAVE Act dovetails nicely with President Trump’s recent Executive Order on elections. That order was a welcome change from the prior administration and rightly resets government policy in crucial areas including proof of citizenship. But executive orders have their limits, and only Congress can make law.

Congress has a duty to ensure that American elections belong exclusively to American citizens. The only question is, will Democrats stand with the American public or against them? Time will tell, and the voters are watching.

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Jason Snead is the executive director of Honest Elections Project Action.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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