FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 31, 2025
Arlington, VA – Just days after President Donald Trump signed a landmark executive order to protect the integrity of American elections, the U.S. House this week will consider legislation that would help codify its central citizenship verification requirement.
First introduced and passed by the House in 2024, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to require that states obtain documentary proof of U.S. citizenship from individuals and to verify their identities in person when registering electors to vote in federal elections at a DMV, a voter registration agency (such as a welfare office), or by mail.
While only U.S. citizens can legally vote in federal elections, federal law has generally preempted and undermined state laws requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in such elections. In fact, the federal voter registration form relies on an ‘honor system’ only requiring individuals to check a box attesting American citizenship—no proof required.
The SAVE Act is being led once again by Rep. Chip Roy (TX) in the House and Sen. Mike Lee (UT) in the Senate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson previously issued a 21-page white paper outlining “irrefutable evidence” that non-citizens have voted illegally.
National Chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued the following statement:
“President Trump and his team should be applauded for addressing the profound lack of citizenship verification required to register and vote in federal elections. The current ‘honor system’ whereby non-citizens need only check a box promising they are citizens doesn’t cut it. Only U.S. citizens, not foreign nationals nor illegal aliens, should ever decide the outcome of our elections.
“We thank Speaker Johnson and Rep. Roy for putting forward this commonsense bill to protect the integrity of our elections and give legitimate citizenship verification the permanency it deserves. Republican or Democrat, every Member of the House should support this critical effort helping to safeguard the solemn right of American citizens to vote. Make no mistake, if you want non-citizens and illegal aliens to land on the voter rolls you obviously oppose it.”
Beginning in 2019, Washington, D.C. Democrats attempted to pass legislation which would have resulted in the automatic dumping of millions of legal and illegal aliens on to the voter rolls. Under H.R. 1, states would have been required to register people who were illegal aliens to vote, state officials would be threatened with criminal liability if they attempt to interfere, and penalties for such illegal voting would be removed—cancelling out millions of American votes.
Section 1012: Mandates states to perform automatic voter registration of every adult on numerous state databases, without regard to citizenship.
Section 1015: Decriminalizes foreigners voting in American elections if they were registered via H.R.1’s mandatory voter registration provisions (i.e., via Sec. 1012).
And to intimidate state and local officials from cleaning foreign citizens off the voter rolls…
Section 1201: Introduces a new, vaguely worded criminal offense if a prosecutor decides a state official’s efforts to keep their voter rolls clean may have ‘interfered’ with registering such person, again regardless of whether or not the registrant was a U.S. Citizen.
The Election Transparency Initiative, a partnership between the American Principles Project (APP) and Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, was organized to combat federal H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 legislation and advocate for state-based election reforms that voters can trust.
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