As a local election official, I have the responsibility to ensure that all eligible voters can participate freely and fairly in elections. That’s why I want voters to understand the harm that would be caused by passing the SAVE Act, which might make it to the House floor next week.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act claims to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. It’s based on false information that spread ahead of the 2024 election, suggesting that noncitizens are voting in large numbers. That’s simply not true.
Election officials have numerous safeguards in place to ensure that only eligible voters can register and vote. In a study conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice that looked at 23.5 million votes across 42 jurisdictions in the 2016 general election, only about 30 instances of noncitizens casting votes were found. That’s a rate of just 0.0001% — nowhere near enough to affect the outcome of any election and far lower than how many eligible voters would be impacted by a documentary proof of citizenship requirement.
Plus it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Election officials like me verify voter identity using federal and state databases, such as Social Security and DMV records. And the penalties are steep — noncitizens who register or vote illegally risk deportation and losing any chance at citizenship.
So what would the SAVE Act actually do?
It would require people to show documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote. That might sound simple, but it’s not. Eligible documents include a REAL ID-compliant identification indicating U.S. citizenship; a valid U.S. passport, military ID and service record; a government-issued photo ID showing U.S. birthplace; or a government-issued photo ID that does not indicate birthplace or citizenship and a valid secondary document.
Because only a handful of states issue IDs that indicate citizenship, many voters will have to supply additional documentation to prove their citizenship. Furthermore, people who have changed their names (such as married women) would need to supply extra paperwork, and voters in rural areas might have to travel long distances just to register. According to the Brennan Center, millions of voters could be affected — people who are already U.S. citizens but would face extra barriers to registering to vote.
This isn’t just theoretical. In New Hampshire, a new voter ID law turned away nearly 100 qualified voters in a single town election because they didn’t have the right documents.
Let’s be clear: the SAVE Act wouldn’t “safeguard” our elections. It would undermine them by making it harder for Americans to vote.
As someone who is tasked with upholding democracy, I urge our Congress and the United States Senate to take this bill off the table and uphold democracy, too. I suggest that if Congress would like to enact advances in election administration, they should follow the methodology that has worked in the past for bills such as the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act. These elections laws were drafted in a bipartisan fashion with local elections officials and voter advocates at the table.
Kristin Connelly, the elected clerk-recorder in Contra Costa, oversees the county’s elections.