9 Things to Know About the Proposed SAVE America Act

9 Things to Know About the Proposed SAVE America Act

The law would preempt state voter registration processes and impose strict voter ID requirements.

The proposed SAVE America Act would impose stricter voter ID requirements than those used in most states. (Adam Kaz/Getty Images)

Editor's note: This page was updated Feb. 19, 2026, to reflect changes to the SAVE Act of 2025, which passed the House but failed in the Senate. Amended legislation, known as the SAVE America Act, was recently passed by the House.

Congress and many state legislatures are focusing on the same thing: ensuring that only U.S. citizens can vote.

On Feb. 11, the U.S. House passed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, also known as the SAVE America Act. The bill would require voter registration applicants to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship and impose strict photo identification rules to vote in federal elections. Similar bills with proof of citizenship requirements passed out of the House in 2024 and 2025 but stalled in the Senate. The 2026 version is largely similar but adds requirements related to voting in person and by mail.

Verifying citizenship for voters is the most significant trend in state elections legislation NCSL tracked in 2025, and that trend is likely to continue in 2026. Bills have been introduced offering a wide variety of approaches to ensuring only eligible U.S. citizens can vote; some ask the voter to take action, while others give state election officials tools to check citizenship status. New Hampshire and Louisiana both passed bills in 2024 requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register, and Wyoming did so in 2025. State versions of documentary proof may materially differ from the SAVE America Act. These states have not yet administered a federal election under the new requirements, though they have held lower-turnout elections.

Kansas has a statutory requirement for documentary proof of citizenship that is not in force due to a court decision, and Arizona has required proof of citizenship to register since 2004. Arizona's law has been in and out of the courts for the last 20 years. The state currently runs a bifurcated system where voters who have provided documentary proof of citizenship can vote on all races; a smaller list of voters who have not yet shown proof of citizenship are eligible to vote in federal races only.

States, which are constitutionally vested with the power to regulate elections, annually consider over 3,000 bills-and enact about 300 laws-addressing various elections issues.

The federal government may (and every so often does) pass laws intended to govern how federal elections are run. The National Voter Registration Act (1993), the Help America Vote Act (2002) and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (2009) are recent examples. These federal laws set baseline standards to which states must conform. Because states usually conduct federal and state elections concurrently, any federal law regarding elections will likely affect the nuts and bolts of how states run all elections and the balance of the federalist system. 

If passed, the SAVE America Act, while only explicitly affecting federal elections, will preempt state voter registration processes. Its proposed voter identification requirements are stricter than those that exist in most states.

The big-picture takeaway: The new bill would require everyone registering to vote to provide a document verifying their citizenship and implement strict photo ID requirements to vote.

What to Know About the Bill

1. Federal law is clear that only U.S. citizens are permitted to vote in federal and state elections. Currently, states decide how to enforce this requirement. All states require new voters to attest to their U.S. citizenship when they register, and all states conduct voter list maintenance to identify potentially ineligible voters on the rolls. How they do that varies. 
2. The SAVE America Act would require states to collect and document proof of citizenship from voters, which few states currently do, and establish additional voter list maintenance processes. A recent University of Maryland study indicates that as many as 21 million eligible voters do not have easy access to documents proving citizenship.
3. The bill would implement a strict photo ID requirement for federal elections and specify the types of identification accepted. While 36 states currently have voter ID requirements to vote, state approaches vary. Just 10 states fall into the strict photo ID category, as defined by NCSL.
4. The bill's identification requirements also specify that a voter ID document must indicate that the individual identified is a U.S. citizen. A handful of states denote citizenship status directly on driver's licenses, and while applicants for REAL ID cards provide documentary evidence of citizenship status, the cards display the same start insignia for a citizen as for a lawfully present noncitizen. Currently, each state determines the types of ID acceptable to vote, and that often includes student IDs, hunting and fishing licenses or other state-specific identification cards.
5. The bill would require voters registering to vote by mail to submit documentary proof of citizenship, which states do not currently require. It is unclear how the bill would affect online voter registration, which is an option in 42 states.
6. The bill would require voters applying for and submitting absentee/mail ballots to submit a photocopy of their identification, at both steps in the process, which most states do not currently do.
7. The bill does not authorize federal funding for the new state responsibilities it creates, and it includes no phase-in period. 
8. States that can't comply might face running state and federal elections separately, with separate procedures, or they might have to keep separate lists of voters who have not provided proof of citizenship and permit them to vote only in state or local races. Arizona already has such a "bifurcated" process, which has seen a stream of litigation dating to 2004.
9. The bill would require states to run their voter lists through the Systematic Alien Verification of Eligibility system to identify potential noncitizens on the voter rolls. Many, though not all, states use this system as one resource for identifying potential noncitizens, but not at the frequency this bill envisions. There are also questions about the personal voter information states would be asked to provide to run records through the database.

The bill also includes a private right of action, allowing individuals to sue if they feel the law is not properly enforced. It would establish criminal penalties for election officials who mistakenly register an applicant to vote who has not presented proof of citizenship.

To learn more about state actions, see the State Legislatures News story "States Consider Options to Ensure That Noncitizens Aren't Voting" and NCSL's webpage Legislative Approaches to Ensuring Only Citizens Vote.

Questions Legislators Can Ask About Voting and Citizenship

• Is voting by noncitizens an issue in our state? How do we know? 
• What do we already do to ensure noncitizens cannot get on voter rolls, or vote? 
• Who does this work? Is it staff at the state level, or is it a responsibility of local jurisdictions?
• What resources or funding are devoted to this work? 
• Is the work done uniformly throughout the state? 
• Do we have an agreement to access the DHS SAVE database to check records that lack proof of citizenship? 
• What are our current requirements for voter identification at in-person polling locations and for absentee/mail voting? Do voters in our state have the identification that would be required by the SAVE America Act?

​