As Trump pressures Congress on the SAVE America Act, states push their own versions

While Republican efforts to pass the SAVE America Act have stalled in Congress, despite increasing pressure from President Donald Trump, efforts are underway at the state level to close the loopholes.

Lawmakers in a dozen states have proposed legislation this year that would require residents to prove their U.S. citizenship to register to vote or bring a photo ID to the polls, according to the Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan group that tracks election law. These proposals constitute two of the central elements of the SAVE America Act at the national level.

The latest example comes from Florida, where the Republican-led legislature this week passed a bill requiring election officials to confirm voters’ citizenship through government databases when they register to vote or update their registration, as well as when maintaining rolls. If a voter’s eligibility is in question, they will be asked for proof of citizenship.

The legislation, once it reaches Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk for signature, will largely take effect next year, after the midterm elections.

Bills to add proof of citizenship to voter registration have also passed both legislative chambers in South Dakota and Utah, where they await signatures from their Republican governors.

Mississippi lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature have passed bills that would require some voters to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. They will have to reconcile amendments to the legislation before it can be submitted to the Republican governor for signature.

In Iowa, Republicans in the state Senate passed a bill that would require some voters to provide proof of citizenship and send it to the House. And in Kansas, House Republicans passed a similar bill.

Additionally, according to the Voting Rights Lab, new restrictions on voter ID have been approved by at least one legislative chamber in eight states: Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia.

Voter impersonation and non-citizen voting – the problems these bills seek to address – are extremely rare and already illegal. But election experts warn that the proposals would affect large swaths of U.S. citizens without easy access to the documents the bills require from voters.

More than 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age do not have proof of citizenship documents, according to a study commissioned by the Brennan Center of Justice.

The domestic version of the SAVE America Act has become a particular priority for Trump in recent weeks. After the bill passed the House last month, it stalled in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass — but Republicans only control 53 seats.

Trump said he would not sign any further legislation until the SAVE America Act is passed. He also requested that restrictions unrelated to gender-affirming medical care and transgender participation in sports be added to the bill.

“I’m not going to do anything until they do it,” Trump told NBC News on Monday.

Meanwhile, states with Republican-led legislatures have taken similar steps.

The Florida bill would add proof of citizenship requirements and limit the types of IDs voters can show to vote. The state has had a voter ID requirement for years, but this bill would prohibit people from using student ID cards, debit or credit cards, public assistance cards and nursing home ID cards to prove their identity at the polls.

Democrats and voting rights advocates have pointed out that some voters may not have access to other forms of ID. They also warn that many voters may not have a certified birth certificate or official documents detailing name changes that would be necessary to prove their citizenship.

“More than a million Florida voters could receive letters from their elections supervisor informing them that they have 30 days to produce documentary proof of their citizenship, or that they could be removed from the voter rolls,” said League of Women Voters of Florida President Jessica Lowe-Minor.

Lowe-Minor said its figure comes from applying an estimate that 9 percent of Americans do not have easy access to appropriate documentation to Florida’s voting-age population. The vast majority of Florida driver’s licenses are already REAL-ID compliant, meaning the citizenship of millions of voters is already on file. It’s unclear how many voters don’t have a driver’s license in the state.

Lowe-Minor said a league member had been unable to help her retired mother obtain a state ID because she had been married three times in another state and no longer had the decades-old paperwork documenting her name changes. Democratic state Rep. Ashley Gantt told a story on the House floor about her aunt, who was born at home during the Jim Crow era and did not have a birth certificate.

“The right to vote should not depend on a person’s ability to find expensive documents dating back decades,” Democratic Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis said during a debate in the Florida Senate.

But the bill’s Senate sponsor, Republican Sen. Erin Grall, opposed efforts to expand the number of IDs acceptable for voting, arguing that people could print fake IDs and impersonate others to vote.

“We’ve seen technology evolve over the years, almost anyone can print an ID card at home,” she said during the debate. “They might be responsible for printing them for their homeowners association.”

GOP state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, who sponsored the bill in the House, said the proposed list of IDs was designed to align Florida’s bill with the national SAVE America Act.

“When you show up to the polls for reasons of election integrity, we want to make sure that you are who you are and that no one has stolen your identity,” she said. “So our list would match what Congress is currently considering under the SAVE America Act.”

Outside of Florida, bills vary. Legislation in South Dakota and Utah would require voters to have or show proof of citizenship to continue voting in state elections. Both would adopt a split voting system like Arizona’s, where courts have ruled the state cannot prevent voters without proof of citizenship from registering and voting in federal elections.

Ten states currently have strict photo ID requirements for voters in elections, although almost all do not go as far as those set forth in the SAVE America Act. Dozens of states, including Florida, have less stringent identification requirements in elections, and many of the bills lawmakers are considering this year aim to further strengthen those rules.

In New Hampshire, lawmakers want to eliminate the use of student IDs in elections, while bills in Arizona and Missouri would add new ID requirements for mail-in voters.