‘A Generation-Defining Moment’: House Passes SAVE Act to Protect Election Integrity

Nearly all House Democrats voted against a “generation-defining” election security bill that would certify only U.S. citizens to register to vote in national elections — a bill President Joe Biden has promised to veto.

The House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act (H.R. 8281) by a near party-line vote of 221-198 vote. The bill amends the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which required officials to ask anyone applying for a driver’s license if they want to register to vote, as well. Although the federal form asks applicants to swear they are American citizens, a 2013 Supreme Court opinion bars states from asking for any proof of citizenship, such as a form of identification.

“You don’t have to prove anything. There’s no documentation, there’s no requirement of reporting,” said Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) on Wednesday’s episode of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” The SAVE Act would require officials to see a vista of identification forms that prove citizenship, as well as allowing them access to federal databases where they could verify the applicant’s citizenship.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) called the vote “a generation-defining moment” and “one of the most important votes that members of this chamber will ever take” in an impassioned speech Wednesday afternoon. “Every so often in this chamber we take a vote that clearly reveals what we think about the world. There are important votes every day, but there are some votes that define who we are. It defines our worldview. It defines what we think about the Constitution, about the rule of law. It defines our careers, and it defines our character. It’s a signal to the voters fundamentally about what we believe about our country.”

The bill raised “an issue we never thought that we would ever have to address, but that moment has come to us now: Should Americans, and Americans alone, determine the outcome of American elections, or should we allow foreigners and illegal aliens to determine who sits in the White House, and here in the people’s House, and in the Senate?”

On Wednesday afternoon, 216 Republicans and five Democrats voted yes, while four Republicans and 14 Democrats did not vote.

The five Democrats who voted for the bill are Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Donald Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington. The Cook Political Report rates Golden, Perez, and Vasquez’s races as toss-ups, and the other two “lean Democratic.”

“I would imagine they would vote with the Republicans on this issue, because that’s the last thing you want is a TV ad pointing out that some illegal immigrant was allowed to vote in your election,” Murphy told Perkins.

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) noted that Arizona has had a skyrocketing number of voter applications that did not provide identification.

An analysis by Just Facts found that between 10% and 27% of non-citizen adults in the United States are registered to vote. Already, 16 cities and municipalities in California, Maryland, and Vermont allow non-citizens to vote legally in state or local elections, in addition to the District of Columbia. New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) supported a measure allowing illegal immigrants to vote in city elections — a law struck down by the New York Supreme Court of Richmond County in June 2022.

“In Oakland, in San Francisco, in New York, and D.C., Democrats are pushing to let non-citizens vote,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told TWS. “They say — wink, wink — only in local elections, but they get blended together.”

Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation found that 10% of non-citizens his team interviewed said they were already registered to vote. He also discovered a Queens-based nonprofit called La Jornada, which operates out of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, provides residency papers to non-citizens, which could enable them to register to vote. The group received a $250,000 federal grant thanks to the efforts of Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.).

Speaker Johnson previously called the issue of non-citizens voting “a very clear and real threat” to U.S. election integrity. “It shouldn’t surprise us that criminals who broke our border laws, my friends, will break our election laws. These are not paragons of virtue in all these cases — these 70% of people who are of military age coming into our country with no deterrence at all. They’re not law-abiding citizens, my friends; they’re illegal aliens.”

Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots told TWS her grassroots conservative organization “strongly supports the bill. This legislation would represent a step forward to assure the integrity of our national voting process.” A poll the group commissioned found 87% of all Americans support the bill’s aims. “Everybody who looks at this question answers it the right way — just about everybody,” said Johnson. “They refuse to hand over our country to illegal aliens, cartels, traffickers, and violent criminals and murderers.”

“These are not huddled masses of people seeking refuge from persecution and seeking asylum here for just causes. These are people who do not have our best designs in mind,” noted Johnson. “Because of Joe Biden’s open border policies, we have got ISIS smuggling rings operating in our country. We have cartels who have operational control of the border. We’ve got Chinese and Russian spies here in our midst, operating openly in our country. We’ve got murderers and rapists offending again and again across this country, and they are never deported.”

ICE arrested 389,237 illegal immigrants convicted or charged with crimes during the first three years of the Trump administration, compared with 165,650 in the same time period of the Biden administration — a 57% reduction in criminal alien arrests, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The reduction comes despite a 425% increase in illegal border crossings at the southwestern border under Biden (1,552,003 vs. 6,589,299).

“If only 1% of them would vote, it wouldn’t just change one race; it might potentially change all of our races,” said Johnson. “We are merely suggesting that since so many illegal aliens are in the country … is it worth adding a layer of protection to ensure that all those illegals cannot register to vote?”

“Is there any action that [Democrats] will take to reduce the opportunity for fraud?” he wondered.

Roy added on the floor that “this administration and our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been damaging and breaking American sovereignty for the entirety of this administration and before. They are destroying our borders. They are allowing people to flood into our country.”

Democrats said the bill is unnecessary, harmful, and “unpatriotic.” Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.) said “MAGA Republicans” have repeated “easily disproved conspiracy theories.” Yet Morelle and his party went on to spin a few conspiratorial yarns of their own. Morelle dismissed the bill as nothing more than “a pretext for overturning the 2024 election, possibly leading to another tragedy on January 6, 2025.”

“The SAVE Act is the most severe voter suppression act ever considered at a federal level,” Morelle thundered, erroneously asserting that Republicans “have no proof” of illegal immigrants voting in U.S. elections. The “unpatriotic” and “shameful” bill “will disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans,” he contended.

Others piled on, making progressively wilder claims about the bill’s impact and motivations. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) derided “this extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill,” which he proceeded to tie to gun control, the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and Project 2025. Rep. Summer Lee (D-Penn.) claimed the bill proved “the right to vote is under attack. It is not hypothetical.” Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) said, “This bill is essentially a poll tax … the 2024 equivalent of the Jim Crow poll tax.” Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-Ala.) brought up the 59-year-old Civil Rights action in Selma, Alabama, while calling the measure “a dangerous, anti-democratic bill.” The real problem, Sewell said, is “the lack of federal oversight,” which now allows states to pass election integrity laws.

But Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) defended the bill and America’s racial progress. “I’ve been black for my entire life. I could bring up the most racist thing I’ve even heard in my entire life is the insinuation by Democrats that black and brown Americans are too stupid to get an ID to vote just like everyone else,” said Hunt. “Jim Crow is over. I know, because my parents grew up in it.”

“Spare me your crocodile tears!” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), said Tuesday on a video conference call organized by the Election Integrity Network and the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, which The Washington Stand attended.

The bill now goes to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it was introduced by Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). President Joe Biden has threatened to veto the bill if it passes.