Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, alongside a coalition of 18 attorneys general, has expressed opposition to the H.R. 22 bill, known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. The coalition argues the bill would impose burdensome proof of citizenship requirements that could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.
The SAVE Act proposes amendments to the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) that would mandate documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration. Ellison and his colleagues assert this change would undo decades of progress made under the NVRA, which aimed to ease voter registration and enhance democratic participation.
“The so-called SAVE Act is far worse than a solution in search of a problem: it would do the opposite of safeguarding voter eligibility and would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters in Minnesota and every single state,” Attorney General Ellison stated. He added, “People across America are waking up to the fact that billionaires are currently running our country into the ground and they’re getting mad as hell about it, so the billionaires have come up with a plan to keep them from voting them out and Republicans in Congress are carrying the billionaires’ water yet again. I can’t say any of it surprises me, but I won’t stand for any of it.”
In their letter to House Speaker Michael Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the attorneys general highlight that non-citizen voting is rare, with studies showing a mere 0.0001% occurrence in high immigration areas. Yet, the SAVE Act would primarily burden poor and minority voters.
The coalition warns the Act would erect significant barriers, noting, “Over 21 million voting-age citizens do not have ready access to a passport, birth record, or naturalization record,” and “80% of married women would not have a valid birth certificate under the SAVE Act because those women chose to adopt their partner's last name.”
Furthermore, they are concerned about the potential administrative and financial burdens on state election systems, which would include restructuring registration processes and document verification, and criminal penalties for election officials' mistakes.
The attorneys general are calling for congressional leaders to reject the SAVE Act to ensure voting remains accessible for eligible Americans. The letter urges a balance between election integrity and voter disenfranchisement.
Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington joined Ellison in this opposition.