One of President Trump’s latest executive orders, Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections, was signed on March 25, preparing the country for the current woes of the SAVE Act, also known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. Led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Austin), the SAVE Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on April 10 with a 220 to 208 vote.
The executive order set the tone for the SAVE Act, creating hurdles for millions of Americans by making it much more difficult to register to vote. The order’s main goal is to implement a requirement for voters to use their passport as the only acceptable document that accurately proves U.S. citizenship, which set the precedent for the SAVE Act to be passed by the U.S. House.
The SAVE Act, if passed by the Senate, will require all American citizens to prove their citizenship to vote by using either their birth certificate, U.S. passport, military identification card or a form of identification that indicates citizenship status, piggybacking off of Trump’s executive order.
According to the Center for American Progress (CAP), roughly half of all adult citizens — almost 146 million Americans — do not have a passport. Those who are affected the most are people of marginalized communities such as the working class, immigrants, LGBTQ people (specifically transgender people), married women and people who live in rural communities.
Greta Bedekovics, associate director of Democracy Policy at the CAP said the following in a statement:
“This order is yet another unconstitutional abuse of power by the Trump administration, this time attempting to deny the right to vote to tens of millions of eligible American citizens. It would also hold federal election funding hostage if states do not enforce Trump’s draconian voter suppression policies.”
She continued, “This order will harm millions of voters—especially rural, low-income, and working-class voters—and make it even harder for eligible citizens to hold election officials, including the president, accountable. The Constitution is clear that only states and Congress have the authority to determine election rules. This order should be challenged in court and promptly struck down.”
Republicans have had a constant goal of dismantling protections for voters since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, specifically targeting Black people, Brown people, the transgender community, and women— some of the most marginalized groups that are at risk of losing voters rights — if the SAVE Act goes through.
Reports show that about 70 million married women do not have matching birth certificates — most take their husband’s last name but don’t change their birth certificate — which will cause a hindrance to them as they attempt to register to vote. Black, Brown, and working class people who rely on mail-in ballots and voter registration drives will also deal with more hurdles by having to further figure out their identification documents, if they even have access to them.
It is important to note that some people cannot even afford a passport.
Transgender people and people of color are currently under scrutiny, in the fact that upon Trump’s inauguration speech, the president expeditiously made it clear to citizens how he plans to target marginalized groups. Transgender people already have a passport battle, which was put into effect by the current administration through a recent executive order, forcing transgender people who seek to renew an older passport or apply to a new passport, to identify as their birth sex, negating their transition.
“This week I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender in every aspect of public and private life.” He continued, “We will forge a society that is color blind and merit based. As of today it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders… male and female.”
Caleb Smith, director of LBGTQI+ Policy at the CAP (and uses they/them pronouns), said. “The reason that married women and a lot of trans folks are at risk is because of a mixed match of documents. When [a woman] changes her last name, most married women aren’t going back to change their birth certificate… it’s difficult for people to go back and change all of their documents.” They continued, “ We know that this is also true for trans folks… not only is it difficult but some states have different laws around name changes.”
Advocates of the SAVE Act suggest that the bill is necessary for Americans as it will prevent non-citizens from voting in future elections. Republicans have spoken out in support of stricter laws that dismantle voter fraud, but political experts suggest that millions of Americans will succumb to new barriers to voter registration.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the SAVE Act would increase the public’s overall confidence in elections. Last Thursday on the House floor, Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-California) said, “The SAVE Act is a blatant attempt to undermine our election system, weaken American democracy and unfairly suppress millions of eligible citizens from voting.”
Smith said that it is important to know that executive orders do not hold the same ability to change policies as a Congressional law. They also said that transgender people can currently still register to vote, without a passport. Bedekovics said that the executive order empowers the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to view various states voter registration files although there are potential safeguards to prevent that.
“Based on the date that we’ve done, this bill is hypercritical for numerous reasons. It’s very clear that this has not been thought through on many levels. This bill goes against all Americans regardless of their political party.” She continued, “This is not an attempt to stop non-citizens from voting… It’s a terrible partisan grab as well. It will cut across the entirety of the American political spectrum and be devastating for people.”
The Save Act has passed on the House floor and poses great risk to voters rights, a crucial matter to American citizens as the bill now makes its way to the Senate, in which Democrats have expressed doing everything in their power to stop its passing.