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Pamela, the anti-voter SAVE America Act has stalled in the Senate after repeated attempts to force it through Congress.
Make no mistake, the White House has been clear that they’re not done trying to pass it. But thanks to you, our collective action was integral to blocking this dangerous legislation for the second year in a row.
At its core, the SAVE Act aims to impose extreme and unnecessary documentation requirements on the voting process. That’s why some call it a “modern-day poll tax” — the hurdles it establishes would make it harder for millions of citizens to participate in our elections.
The bad news? Anti-democracy forces are wasting no time in passing copycat legislation on the state level. Legislatures in Florida, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Utah have already passed laws requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration, and similar bills are advancing in at least 12 other states. Our fight is far from over.
Here’s what you need to know about what’s happened at the state level:
- Florida: Earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law enacting proof of citizenship requirements when registering that will go into effect in 2027. Like the federal SAVE Act, this effort wouldn’t allow the use of many typical forms of identification, like student IDs, for registration.
- Mississippi: The state’s SHIELD Act, which would take effect this July, was also passed this month. According to the law, all registered voters will be automatically enrolled in a state-run election management system. The law also creates a partnership between the state and the federal system used to identify immigration status — without addressing how or what information would be shared.
- South Dakota: Legislation that passed this March went into effect immediately — meaning that new voters hoping to vote in the state's June primary and the midterms must now provide documentation to prove their citizenship. According to the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office, just one non-citizen voted in the 2016 general election.
- Utah: A proof of citizenship law was signed into law this March, despite only one non-citizen being found to be registered and not a single non-citizen voting in a Utah election.
It might sound simple, but proving you’re a citizen is unnecessarily burdensome. For anyone who’s changed their name after marriage, or for folks who lost critical documents in a move or a disaster, it can be prohibitively time-consuming and costly.
And across the country, several states are on the verge of passing similar bills, with many states already passing them in one or both chambers of their state legislatures.
Thank you for sustaining our fight for democracy — anywhere and everywhere it’s under attack,
The Redistricting Action Team
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