House OKs SAVE Act Election Integrity Measure

The House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly approved the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act 220-208.

Four House Democrats broke ranks and joined 216 Republicans to pass the election integrity measure, while 208 Democrats voted against it.

The SAVE Act is designed to help reduce voter fraud by prohibiting states from registering individuals to vote in federal elections unless they first prove that they are American citizens with approved documentation. It also makes it a crime to register someone who does not provide proof of American citizenship, and it orders states to remove noncitizens from their official lists of eligible voters. 

The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

“There’s nothing more sacred under the Constitution than ensuring that the people are able to have the voice in the election of the people that represent them in Washington and throughout the country. Once that is undermined, then people lose faith in the very institutions upon which this is built,” the Texas congressman said on the floor of the House. 

The bill has received backing from proponents of election integrity.

“The only way to prevent this disenfranchisement is by requiring proof of citizenship when individuals are registering to vote to prevent such illegal votes from being cast in the first place,” Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.

The SAVE Act had already passed the House once during the previous Congress. Senate Democrats stopped it in its tracks, but this time Republicans in the Senate may be able to attach the bill to a spending measure to get it passed over a Democrat filibuster. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, proposed that very action in 2024, although ultimately the SAVE Act was dropped from the spending bill in 2024.

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