Opinion: Save America from the SAVE America Act

By Rhiannon Reinholz

Published April 21, 2026

The SAVE America Act is a reprehensible, irrational bill that would make it harder for Americans to vote as it would require people to provide proof of citizenship to register. Many people do not have access to the documentation required to prove citizenship, and many others would have to bring extra paperwork due to legal name changes. This would disproportionally affect married women, adoptees, immigrants, and transgender adults. If the government can automatically register men for the draft, why must it impose poll taxes?

Defendants of the act claim immigrants are responsible for voter fraud. However, this is misleading because research shows voter fraud is extremely rare in and of itself. Under the SAVE America Act, women and certain minorities would be facing disproportional, systematic barriers to registering to vote despite not being illegal discrimination. Most women in opposite-sex marriages take or hyphenate their spouse’s last name, causing a mismatch between documents. Transgender adults also face higher rates of identification discrepancies across systems, so they would likewise be disenfranchised by this preposterous bill.

Without widespread education about such an intense restriction, many people already underrepresented in policy decision-making will be turned away at the polls. Providing certain IDs, like passports, can be expensive, especially for people who have changed their name and receive new copies of documentation. Additionally, a large proportion of eligible voters do not own passports to prove citizenship. If you had to prove your citizenship right now, could you? Do you know where your birth certificate is?