This week, the US House of Representatives will vote on legislation that, if enacted, would create new barriers for millions of eligible voters in the United States.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, supported by President Donald Trump and many congressional Republicans, claims to address alleged voter fraud. In reality, it echoes the United States’ history of using bureaucratic and sometimes extreme requirements to keep Black, Latino, and poor people away from the ballot box.
The SAVE Act would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, such as a birth certificate or a passport. The many US citizens who do not possess such documents would have to navigate complex hurdles to have any hope of registering. The inevitable result would be to block many eligible people from voting at all.
From literacy tests to poll taxes to grandfather clauses, the United States has a long history of using supposedly neutral rules to achieve racially discriminatory outcomes. The SAVE Act is, on some level, a part of this legacy. Communities of color, immigrants, and low-income people are less likely to have an original birth certificate or passport because of financial and other obstacles to obtain them. For communities already burdened by centuries of exclusion, it would become even harder to participate in political life.
Under international human rights law, the right to vote should be universal and free from discrimination. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the United States has ratified, requires governments to ensure free and fair elections without unreasonable restrictions. The SAVE Act’s onerous restrictions are not reasonable. In fact, the problem it claims to address—widespread illegal voting by noncitizens—is a fiction the Trump administration has invented for political purposes.
Members of Congress should publicly commit to voting “no” to the SAVE Act and instead work to expand ballot access for all.
