The SAVE Act is one of the most talked-about election bills in years, but much of the debate has focused on what people think it does rather than what the legislation actually says. Here is what is in the bill, what current law requires, and what happens next.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, formally H.R. 22 and sponsored by Rep. Roy (R-TX), would impose new requirements for registering to vote in federal elections. The bill’s core provisions:
Proof of citizenship to register. Anyone registering to vote in a federal election would need to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in person at an election office. Currently, voter registration requires only a signed attestation: a checkbox on the federal registration form in which applicants swear under penalty of perjury that they are citizens.
Accepted documents. The bill specifies which documents satisfy the requirement: a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or state ID, a valid U.S. passport, a military ID paired with a service record, a birth certificate, or a naturalization certificate.
Photo ID at the polls. The SAVE America Act (H.R. 7296), an expanded version of H.R. 22 that incorporates its proof-of-citizenship provisions and adds new requirements, would also require voters to present photo identification when casting a ballot at a polling place. H.R. 7296 is the version that passed the House on February 11, 2026.
Voter roll maintenance. States would be required to identify and remove non-citizens from their voter rolls. Federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, would be required to share citizenship data with election officials within 24 hours of a request. DHS would receive unredacted voter rolls for citizenship validation.
Criminal penalties. Election officials who register individuals without verifying citizenship documentation would face criminal penalties.
Under current federal law, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, states must “accept and use” a standardized federal voter registration form. That form does not require proof of citizenship. Instead, it requires applicants to attest under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens.
The SAVE Act would replace that attestation-only system with a documentary proof requirement. It would also require in-person presentation of documents at an election office, a change that would affect the roughly 7 million people who registered by mail and 11 million who registered online in 2022, according to the Campaign Legal Center, which describes itself as “a nonpartisan legal organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy.”
The bill would also give DHS a direct role in voter roll verification, something no federal agency currently has.
The House passed the SAVE America Act (H.R. 7296) on February 11, 2026, by a vote of 218-213. The vote fell almost entirely along party lines; one Democrat, Rep. Cuellar (D-TX), voted yes, and no Republicans voted against it. The original SAVE Act (H.R. 22) had passed the House separately on April 10, 2025, by a vote of 220-208.
H.R. 22 had more than 110 cosponsors in the House. The Senate companion, S. 128, sponsored by Sen. Lee (R-UT), has 50 cosponsors as of February 14, 2026.
The SAVE America Act now moves to the Senate, where it faces the 60-vote filibuster threshold. With 50 Republican senators backing the bill and no announced Democratic support, it would need at least 10 Democrats to cross the aisle, or Senate leadership would need to find a procedural path around the filibuster.
President Trump has signaled support for the bill. A separate possibility: if Congress cannot pass the legislation, the administration could pursue some voter verification goals through executive order, though the scope of executive authority over election procedures is legally contested.
Seven states have enacted some form of proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration, according to Ballotpedia: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Wyoming. Ohio requires proof only at Bureau of Motor Vehicles registration. The track record is mixed:
Internationally, 176 countries require some form of voter identification, according to research compiled by the Civitas Institute, which describes itself as “North Carolina’s most broadly supported conservative policy organization.”
Supporters argue the bill is a commonsense measure that gives election officials the tools to verify citizenship, something Americans already do for employment, air travel, and banking.
The Heritage Foundation, which describes itself as “a research and educational institution whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense,” argues that previous court rulings struck down state-level laws partly because the National Voter Registration Act did not authorize proof-of-citizenship requirements. The SAVE Act, they say, fixes that legal gap.
Polling shows broad public support for voter ID requirements. Gallup found in October 2024 that 84% of Americans support photo ID for voting, including 67% of Democrats and 98% of Republicans. Pew Research reported in August 2025 that 83% support voter ID, with backing from 76% of Black Americans and 82% of Hispanic Americans.
For deeper coverage of the polling data and international comparison, see our companion articles in this story thread.
Opponents argue the bill would create barriers for millions of eligible citizens. The Brennan Center for Justice, which describes itself as “an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization,” estimates that 21.3 million U.S. citizens of voting age do not have ready access to citizenship documents, and 3.8 million have no such documents at all.
The ACLU, which describes its mission as working “to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all,” warns that the bill would disproportionately affect naturalized citizens, low-income voters, voters of color, Native Americans, and rural voters. In a statement following the House vote, the ACLU called the bill “a dangerous and unnecessary attack on voting rights.”
The National Women’s Law Center, which says it “fights for gender justice,” points out that 84% of women who marry change their surname, meaning their birth certificates would not match their legal name. The bill does not specify whether a marriage certificate combined with a birth certificate would satisfy the requirement.
Opponents also raise concerns about deployed military and overseas voters. The U.S. Vote Foundation wrote in a letter to Congress that the in-person document requirement would “decimate” overseas voter participation.
Nearly 60 bipartisan election officials have publicly opposed the bill through Issue One, and a coalition of 145 organizations signed an opposition letter organized by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
On the question of non-citizen voting, the Brennan Center reports that it is “vanishingly rare,” finding 30 suspected incidents out of 23.5 million votes studied in 2016.
For a detailed look at these arguments and the underlying data, see our companion articles in this story thread.
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