Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is adding stricter requirements to his election security bill that would ban noncitizens from voting in federal elections as nearly every Republican senator has signed on to co-sponsor the legislation.
Lee filed an update to his Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act on Thursday evening, renaming it to the SAVE America Act and including additional language to require photo ID as a requirement to vote. The name change came as a suggestion from President Donald Trump, Lee said, which he called “aptly named.”
“The SAVE America Act makes our original SAVE Act better. President Trump rightly believes we should include Voter ID in this bill as we make a renewed push to secure our elections and protect the rights of American voters,” Lee said in a joint statement with Rep. Chip Roy, who leads the legislation in the House. “By requiring Voter ID and proof-of-citizenship, the SAVE America Act will ensure that our federal elections are decided by U.S. citizens — and U.S. citizens alone.”
Lee introduced the original SAVE Act in the Senate last year, and the bill already passed the House in a bipartisan vote. However, the bill has yet to be considered in the Senate, prompting Lee to launch a pressure campaign earlier this month to schedule a vote.
48 Senate Republicans sign on to SAVE Act
At least 48 Republicans in the Senate have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, according to congressional records, 17 of which joined in January alone. Utah Sen. John Curtis is a co-sponsor.
Lee has been in discussions with Senate Republican leadership to get a vote, but the Utah senator told the Deseret News this week nothing has been set in stone.
“We’re exploring a whole bunch of options on that,” Lee said. “We don’t have a floor vote arranged yet, and we’re going to keep pushing.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., indicated support for the SAVE Act this week, telling reporters he will schedule a vote “at some point.”
Pressure has been growing in the House as well, with some lawmakers threatening to stall action on other legislation until the Senate passes the voting bill.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said she would block the must-pass spending package to avert a shutdown unless it has the SAVE Act attached — warning that a separate vote would fail in the Senate.
“Do not let Republicans fool you. If the SAVE Act (or SAVE America Act) is not attached to an appropriations bill, it will fail as a standalone measure in the Senate,” Luna wrote in a post on X. “That is why any appropriations package coming out of the House MUST include it. I am fully aware that leadership plans to bundle five of the bills together; however, the DHS bill will be a standalone and MUST have the SAVE Act attached.”
Lee said he is aware of those efforts on the House side, but told the Deseret News he doesn’t “entirely understand the procedural arrangement they’ve got” to be successful.
“I hope to figure that out at some point,” he said.
The SAVE America Act would implement proof-of-citizenship requirements in order to vote in federal elections, requiring voters to provide identification that is compliant with the most recent REAL ID guidelines, a passport, or some other citizenship document. For any identification card that does not include birthplace or citizenship status, the voter must also provide a birth certificate, a naturalization certificate, an adoption decree, or some document that proves he or she was born in the United States.
The most recent iteration would add language requiring voters to “present an eligible photo identification document before voting,” a measure that was raised by House Republican leaders earlier this month.
The bill has already been endorsed by Trump, and the president has posted several times on social media pushing for a vote.
It’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and can lead to felony charges or deportation. Such instances of noncitizens voting are rare and often done by mistake, according to recent studies.
Still, Trump made election integrity a key priority for his second administration, even going so far as signing a sweeping executive order last year that included a citizenship requirement.
More than 9% of voters in the U.S. do not have citizenship documents on hand, amounting to about 21.3 million people, according to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice. That can especially affect married women who changed their last names, the study shows.
Lee and other Republicans have pushed back on that assertion, arguing the SAVE Act would provide “multiple ways” to prove one’s citizenship.