Voters Don’t Need SAVE(ing)

It’s five days before Election Day, and you’re on your way to register and then vote at an early voting site in your community with your husband. When you arrive to register, you’re told you need to prove that you’re a United States citizen and will need to provide a birth certificate or passport, even though you have your driver’s license with you.

You rush back home to find your birth certificate (you don’t have a passport) and return to the early voting site. They tell your husband he is good to go and can cast his ballot, but you’re told that because the name on your birth certificate and your driver’s license aren’t the same — because you changed your last name when you got married — you’ll also need to produce your marriage license. You’re confused because, although you’re a first-time voter in Michigan, you’ve voted before and have never had to do more than your husband to register and cast your ballot. At this point, you leave frustrated that it’s harder for you to vote than your husband, angry that you wasted an afternoon off from work, and are unable to cast your ballot.

This could be the fate for millions of Americans if the SAVE Act, which is up for a vote in the U.S. Senate today, passes.

Let’s be clear: it is already a felony for non-citizens to register to vote and vote in U.S. elections. There is absolutely no evidence of widespread, non-citizen voting in federal or state elections. It is simply not happening…anywhere.

Documentary proof of citizenship policies will create unnecessary red tape for voters and could prevent people from voting. Requiring certain voters (read: married people (primarily women) or others whose legal name doesn’t match the name of birth certificate, rural voters, people who moved through the foster care system, working class voters, voters of color, students, natural disaster survivors, and older voters) to provide additional documents that cost money and take time to acquire, like a passport or registered birth certificate, to vote amounts to nothing more than a poll tax.

Right now, the SAVE Act is on the U.S. Senate floor for debate and filibuster. The SAVE Act already passed through the U.S. House of Representatives and is now up to our U.S. Senators to VOTE NO and stop it. At the state level, Americans for Citizen Voting Michigan submitted signatures to put a measure on the ballot in November 2026 that would require citizens to prove their citizenship in order to register to vote in Michigan elections. Voters already affirm their identity when they go to vote and check a box indicating that they are a U.S. citizen when they register, and the penalty for lying can result in imprisonment, fines, or deportation.

Our elections are secure, accurate, and more accessible than ever before, but voters are facing one of the largest barriers to the ballot box in recent years. Michigan voters have consistently voted to improve and modernize our elections, and Michigan is now a national leader in secure and accessible elections. These measures would be turning back the clock on hard-earned progress.

Contact your U.S. Senator TODAY and tell them to oppose the SAVE Act.