Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California’s former Secretary of State, warned Secretaries of State, Lieutenant Governors, and Chief Election Officials across the country of the devastating potential impacts of Republicans’ Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on this week. The bill threatens to disenfranchise millions of eligible American voters by creating overly burdensome documentation requirements, making voting harder for new voters, married women, rural voters, and the tens of millions of Americans who register to vote online or through the mail.

Senator Padilla highlighted that nearly half of Americans do not own a passport, and 21 million voting age Americans lack easy access to the voter documentation required by the SAVE Act, including a U.S. passport, birth certificate, or citizenship certificate. Furthermore, the bill could restrict the right to vote for approximately 69 million married women whose legal names differ from their birth certificates. As more than 12 percent of Americans move each year, millions of voters would also be required to find these documents any time they change their address.

“If this legislation becomes law, millions of Americans will face major obstacles to vote because they either lack the required documents to prove citizenship or because they relied on ways to register that the bill would upend — including online voter registration, registration by mail, voter drives, or automatic voter registration,” wrote Senator Padilla. “I encourage you to use your office to help educate election officials in your state and your Members of Congress about how this bill could harm voters and elections in your state.”

The SAVE Act is especially alarming following President Trump’s recent anti-voter executive order, Padilla wrote.

“This vote is particularly concerning as it comes after a recent executive order, where the President asserted sweeping unilateral power of state-run elections, including illegally requiring documentary proof of citizenship on the National Voter Registration Form, and allowing DOGE and the Department of Homeland Security access to voter registration and other state records, along with federal databases,” continued Padilla. “We have not seen an attempt like this since the federal push for voter data by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity during the first Trump Administration in 2017, which state election officials rejected on an overwhelming bipartisan basis.”

Padilla stressed that voting by noncitizens is already a federal crime and is incredibly rare. A review of the 2016 general election found that only 0.0001 percent of votes came from improper noncitizen voting among the jurisdictions reviewed. Additionally, a recent analysis of Heritage Foundation data identified only 68 such cases over the past four decades.

He further emphasized that the immediate implementation of the SAVE Act, which also requires removal of noncitizens from the voter rolls, could result in the purging of eligible voters as states will lack the time and infrastructure to swiftly and accurately implement these changes. Padilla also underscored the risks the SAVE Act poses to the administration of elections, as the bill imposes extreme criminal penalties against election officials, including up to five years in federal prison and major fines, for helping register a voter without the required documentation. As election workers face mounting threats and high workloads, the threat of these penalties could further deplete the election administration workforce.

“Put plainly, state and local election officials should be aware that Congress is rapidly moving legislation to disenfranchise voters and disrupt election administration based on the fiction of noncitizen voting,” concluded Padilla.

Senator Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump and Republicans’ reckless attempts to restrict the right to vote. Last week, Padilla led 11 Senators in introducing the Defending America’s Future Elections Act to repeal Trump’s illegal anti-voter executive order and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive voter registration data and state records. Padilla also led 14 Democratic Senators in calling on Trump to revoke his illegal anti-voter executive order and issued a statement slamming the order when it was announced.

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Lieutenant Governors, Secretaries and Chief Election Officials:

As a former Secretary of State, I write to bring your attention to my serious concerns over the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act (H.R. 22/S. 128) which will be considered in the U.S. House of Representatives soon. This bill purports to stop noncitizen voting by requiring anyone registering to vote to provide documentary proof of citizenship. If this legislation becomes law, millions of Americans will face major obstacles to vote because they either lack the required documents to prove citizenship or because they relied on ways to register that the bill would upend – including online voter registration, registration by mail, voter drives, or automatic voter registration. I encourage you to use your office to help educate election officials in your state and your Members of Congress about how this bill could harm voters and elections in your state.

This vote is particularly concerning as it comes after a recent executive order, where the President asserted sweeping unilateral power of state-run elections, including illegally requiring documentary proof of citizenship on the National Voter Registration Form, and allowing DOGE and the Department of Homeland Security access to voter registration and other state records, along with federal databases. We have not seen an attempt like this since the federal push for voter data by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity during the first Trump Administration in 2017, which state election officials rejected on an overwhelming bipartisan basis.

Voting by noncitizens, which this bill claims to combat, is exceedingly rare and this response only serves to inhibit eligible voters. A review of the 2016 general election found that in the jurisdictions studied, improper noncitizen voting was 0.0001 percent of votes. Voters already must affirm their U.S. citizenship under the penalty of perjury when registering to vote and voting in a federal election as a noncitizen is a federal crime.

Further, the requirement for documentary proof of citizenship is a costly burden that could disenfranchise millions of Americans. A large majority of Americans live in states where their driver’s license does not meet the requirements of the bill. Over 140 million Americans do not have a passport, and over 21 million American citizens cannot easily access proof of citizenship documents. The bill also prevents people who have changed their legal names from using their birth certificates, impacting tens of millions of married women. More than 12 percent of Americans also move every year, and would be forced to access these documents to re-register at their new address.

Taken together the bill’s requirements would disproportionately harm voters of color, married women, members of the military, and younger voters. As Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab has made clear, his state’s efforts to impose proof of citizenship requirements in 2013 “didn’t work out so well.” As the Kansas law was challenged in court, it was found that only 39 noncitizens had registered to vote in the state from 1999 to 2012, yet the law ultimately blocked the registration of over 31,000 eligible U.S. citizens.

The SAVE Act would take effect immediately, giving states little time to set up a regime that not only requires verification of citizenship but requires removal of noncitizens from the voter rolls. The lack of time and infrastructure for these processes may cause states to rely on unreliable data, resulting in the removal of eligible voters.

In addition to likely disenfranchising millions of Americans, the SAVE Act would make it more difficult for election officials to do their jobs, with dramatic consequences for errors. If enacted, the law would impose severe criminal penalties against election officials, including fines and up to five years in federal prison, if they help register a voter who does not provide documentary proof of citizenship. As you know, election workers in your states are already overburdened – imposing these penalties could have a profoundly harmful impact on the election administration workforce.

Put plainly, state and local election officials should be aware that Congress is rapidly moving legislation to disenfranchise voters and disrupt election administration based on the fiction of noncitizen voting. As someone who served as a state election, I encourage you to review the legislation closely and ensure that election officials in your state and your Members of Congress are aware of the potentially serious consequences if this bill were to be enacted.

Sincerely,

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