The House passed a bill on Wednesday that requires proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act is an amendment to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 that requires proof of citizenship “to register an individual to vote in elections for Federal office,” according to the bill text. The bill, which was introduced by Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, passed the House 221-198.
Five Democrats joined with Republicans to pass the bill.
“We will only be able to keep this republic as a republic as long as our citizenship as Americans remains meaningful,” Roy said in a press release following the bill’s passage. “That’s why I introduced the SAVE Act in the first place, and it’s why the People’s House passed it today.”
The bill establishes criminal penalties for election officials who register voters without enforcing the requirement to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Additionally, the bill requires noncitizens to be removed from official lists of eligible voters.
The Biden Administration released a statement in opposition to the bill on Monday, claiming that states “already have effective safeguards in place to verify voter’s eligibility and maintain accuracy of voter rolls.”
“This bill would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but it would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls,” the White House said. “The evidence is clear that the current laws to prevent noncitizen voting are working as intended — it is extraordinarily rare for noncitizens to break the law by voting in Federal elections.”
Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday that Democrats are trying to “mislead” Americans about election integrity efforts because “they want illegals to vote in our elections.”
“They’re claiming to oppose the bill because they say it’s going to make it harder to vote,” Johnson said during a press conference. “But they know that that is not true. Many of the Democrats want all of these illegals to participate in our federal elections. They want them to vote. There’s no other conclusion that you could draw. When the White House announced that they would veto the bill they effectively handed our elections over to all of these illegal aliens that have come here.”