The “Save America” Act was passed by the House of Representatives on February 11, 2026, and will now be passed to the Senate for consideration. See Fair Elections Center’s statement here.
In America, most of us believe that voters should pick our leaders. But right now, leadership in Congress is trying to pass legislation that would stop millions of eligible Americans from having their votes counted in choosing our leaders. Two more bills were introduced into Congress last week that would enact “show your papers” requirements for voter registration. These bills are really just versions of last year’s anti-voter SAVE Act. There is no reason to pass any version of the SAVE Act other than to make it harder to vote, undermine election integrity and confidence, and promote completely baseless made-up conspiracy theories about widespread non-citizen voting.
The bottom line: the SAVE Act–any version of it–would prevent millions of eligible American citizens from voting and Congress should reject it in any form.
ALL VERSIONS OF THE SAVE ACT WOULD:
These SAVE Act dupes aren’t saving anyone – all these bills do is stop eligible Americans from exercising their most foundational Constitutional right and from making sure that our leaders are chosen by all citizens, not just the ones that have the “right” paperwork.
Voting by people who aren’t U.S. citizens is incredibly rare, and when it happens it is often a mistake. The extremely harsh consequences of deportation and prison time that already exist for noncitizens are enough to make sure that overwhelmingly only citizens are voting in state and federal elections. Excluding eligible citizens from voting because they don’t have the listed paperwork makes our elections less fair.
HOW THESE LAWS HARM VOTERS
These laws will disproportionately impact young people, seniors, and married women who have changed their last name, but make no mistake: This legislation will impact Americans across all political parties and demographic groups.
See more information about the impact by state here.
The SAVE Act bills would make voting especially hard for communities of color, low-income people, people with disabilities, women, rural Americans, and other marginalized communities.
Half of American citizens, 146 million people, do not have a passport, and more than 21 million American citizens don’t have a passport or birth certificate readily available.
When Kansas and Arizona implemented similar documentary proof of citizenship requirements, they blocked tens of thousands of eligible citizens from registering to vote, including 31,000 citizens in Kansas.
These paperwork requirements would effectively shut down online voter registration and make mail registration much harder, because even when people have the documents they need, they often can’t easily make and send in copies.
In addition to the red tape that all versions of the SAVE Act set up for voters, the newest iterations of the bill include even more rules that would make it even harder for eligible citizens to vote.
MORE BARRIERS ADDED BY THE SO-CALLED “SAVE AMERICA” ACT
On top of having to show papers when registering, the version as passed by the House requires strict photo ID when voting both in person and by mail, banning the use of student ID. The Senate version, on the other hand, offers an ultimatum to states: share your voter rolls with the Department of Homeland Security, or your voters will have to show those same papers again at the polls.
MORE BARRIERS ADDED BY THE SO-CALLED “MAKE ELECTIONS GREAT AGAIN ACT” OR MEGA ACT
To recap: Congress should reject any version of the SAVE Act because they will stop eligible Americans from voting, as all this red tape is clearly designed to do. Remember, if your vote wasn’t so powerful, they wouldn’t be trying to take it away.
Preventing disenfranchisement from Documentary Proof of Citizenship is a top priority of the Fair Elections Center’s Voting Rights Project. Read more about our policy priorities here.
Florida SB 1334/HB 991 is Florida’s SAVE Act – and like the federal bill of the same name, it won’t save anything. These bills would stop tens of thousands of Florida voters from having their voices heard at the ballot box make running our elections significantly harder and more expensive.
Last updated: February 11, 2026