April 3, 2025 Story by: Publisher
U.S. Rep.Terri Sewell (D-AL) spoke on the House floor to voice her strong opposition to the Republican-backed SAVE Act, expressing concern that the bill could disenfranchise millions of eligible American voters.
She argued that the legislation would create new barriers to voting for 69 million married women who have changed their last names, 146 million Americans without passports, and those with military and tribal IDs.
“Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my CBC colleagues in getting into some Good Trouble as we voice our very strong opposition to the Republicans’ voter suppression bill, the so-called SAVE Act,” Rep. Sewell said. “As a daughter of Selma and the Representative of Alabama’s Civil Rights District, the fight for voting rights is very personal to me. It was in Selma, 60 years ago, where John Lewis and hundreds of Foot Soldiers were bludgeoned on the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the right, the equal right of every American to vote. The legislation before us makes a mockery of that legacy.”
The SAVE Act requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. Specifically, it prohibits states from accepting and processing a voter registration application for a federal election unless the applicant presents documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. The bill specifies acceptable documents, such as identification that complies with the REAL ID Act of 2005 indicating U.S. citizenship.
Furthermore, the bill prohibits states from registering an individual to vote in a federal election unless the individual provides documentary proof of U.S. citizenship at the time of registration, and requires states to establish an alternative process for applicants to submit other evidence of U.S. citizenship.
Each state must take affirmative steps to ensure that only U.S. citizens are registered to vote, including establishing a program to identify non-citizens using information from certain sources. Additionally, states must remove non-citizens from their official lists of eligible voters.
The bill allows for a private right of action against an election official who registers an applicant to vote in a federal election without documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. It also establishes criminal penalties for certain offenses, including registering an applicant without such proof.
“I urge all my colleagues to not only vote NO on the SAVE Act, but to do so with vigor and with purpose,” Sewell said. “John Lewis said that ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, one year. Ours is a struggle of a lifetime, and as long as the Congressional Black Caucus, 63 members strong in this Congress, we will stand up and protect the rights of every American to vote and we will stop efforts like the SAVE Act.”
Source: Sewell.House.Gov
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