The SAVE America Act is increasingly unlikely to become law at the federal level, but significant components of its voting restrictions have been taken up at the state level ahead of November's midterm elections, a Reuters analysis shows. Since 2024, 23 predominantly Republican-run states have moved to alter voter registration and identification procedures in ways that reflect elements of the bill, officials and advocates say.
Across a broad swath of the country, state actions have included new documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements for those registering to vote and narrower lists of acceptable photo identification at the polls. Officials in at least 17 of the states have also pursued one of the more contentious provisions tied to the SAVE America Act: running voter rolls through a Department of Homeland Security system normally used to verify eligibility for public benefits.
Although the state-level measures vary in scope and severity, most stop short of adopting the full breadth of the SAVE America Act's restrictions on how citizens must demonstrate their citizenship or which photo IDs are acceptable when voting, according to the Reuters analysis. Nonetheless, voting rights advocates caution that the changes could nonetheless make it harder for some eligible voters to cast ballots in this election cycle, which will decide control of Congress.
Political posture in Washington
On the national stage, the legislation appears to have lost momentum. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, did not reference the SAVE America Act in his opening remarks when Congress returned this week. At the White House, President Donald Trump used a March signing ceremony for an executive order aimed at tightening mail-in voting rules to assert that U.S. voter fraud was "massive." That executive order is facing court challenges and is viewed as unlikely to be implemented in the near term.
Despite the federal bill's faltering prospects, state lawmakers and election officials have moved in multiple directions. Some measures are milder than the SAVE America Act in how they treat documentary proof and photo identification, while others more closely reflect the federal proposal's mechanics.
Proof-of-citizenship changes
The SAVE America Act is best known for its requirement that people registering to vote in federal elections submit documentary proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport or a birth certificate. Seven states have enacted new proof-of-citizenship rules that will be in effect for the November election. Of those seven, only New Hampshire has implemented a policy as strict as the SAVE America Act's requirement.
Chris Diaz, legislative tracking director at the non-partisan Voting Rights Lab, noted that many Americans already provide documentary proof of citizenship when applying for driver's licenses or state IDs, and that the federal Real ID Act of 2005 requires states to keep digital records of such documents. "It just doesn't make any sense for a state to not leverage the massive amount of information they already have about voters," he said. That observation frames a common argument among officials who favor stricter documentation: existing state records could be used to validate eligibility.
Photo ID rules
The SAVE America Act would also limit the types of photo identification acceptable at the polls to a narrow set: unexpired U.S. passports, driver's licenses, state IDs, military IDs and tribal IDs. Nine states have tightened their photo ID rules ahead of the November vote, but many of those states permit a broader range of documents than the federal bill would allow. Some states accepting student IDs, expired IDs, or any photo ID that includes a voter's name and picture have chosen less restrictive approaches. New Hampshire and Indiana are cited as exceptions where lawmakers have replicated the SAVE America Act's tighter list of acceptable IDs.
Using DHS screening on voter rolls
Perhaps the most widely copied element of the SAVE America Act is its push to screen voter registration lists through a Department of Homeland Security system known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE. Historically, election officials used SAVE on an ad hoc basis to resolve questions about particular registrants' citizenship. Under changes implemented last year, the Trump administration broadened the system's inputs to include additional personal data, such as information from the Social Security Administration, and invited states to upload entire voter rolls for screening to identify potential non-citizens.
Six states have enacted laws that require their voter rolls to be periodically run through the DHS system. In 12 other states, top election officials have chosen to use the system, according to state statements and officials who have spoken publicly about their procedures. The Reuters analysis notes that officials in at least 17 of the 23 states have moved to follow this particular mandate in some fashion.
Results from the screenings have been mixed. In Iowa, election authorities reported that the process flagged 277 non-citizens among the state's approximately 2.1 million registered voters, and that 40 of those individuals had attempted to vote in the 2024 election, according to the secretary of state's office. In Utah, the system flagged nearly 9,000 of the state's roughly 2 million voters as requiring further review, but manual follow-up found just one non-citizen, the state's lieutenant governor said.
"The initial results of those searches mostly just prove that there's nothing to see here, that there isn't a problem to be fixed," said Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Voting Rights program at the Brennan Center for Justice, describing the screening outcomes in some states.
Errors and legal concerns
Investigations and advocacy groups have documented instances in which the DHS screening has produced false flags. A ProPublica-Texas Tribune joint investigation in February found that state officials in Missouri and Texas had incorrectly flagged dozens of voters as non-citizens after running their lists through the system. Those errors led officials to suspend voting rights or initiate removal procedures for some voters.
Voting rights advocates warn that even more modest state-level changes in proof-of-citizenship and photo ID rules could have tangible effects at the polls. Danielle Lang, vice president for voting rights and the rule of law at the Campaign Legal Center, said that while many of the new measures are not as severe as the SAVE America Act, they "still have really serious impacts on voters." Concern centers on citizens who do not possess specific forms of documentation when they attempt to register or vote.
Convictions data
The bipartisan political reform group Issue One examined an election fraud database maintained by the Heritage Foundation and identified 65 convictions for non-citizen voting spanning 2000 through 2025, out of approximately 1.4 billion votes cast in federal elections over that period. The Heritage Foundation characterizes its database as a "non-comprehensive" sample of election fraud cases and did not respond to requests for comment.
What this means going into November
With the SAVE America Act unlikely to pass at the federal level, the immediate changes affecting voters will be those enacted or implemented at the state level. Those state decisions range from stricter documentation and ID lists to broader use of a federal verification system to screen for non-citizens. Officials in different states have taken varying approaches to balance concerns about election integrity with the risk of disenfranchising eligible voters.
How these state-level measures will influence turnout, administrative burden and legal challenges in the months ahead remains a matter for state election officials, courts and advocates to monitor. The coming months will show how often the new screening processes produce verified non-citizen findings and how frequently errors occur that affect lawful voters.