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After a volatile and eventful start, everyone is trying to figure out what to expect from the new Trump administration and the GOP-controlled Congress. That includes secretaries of state from around the country, who gathered in Washington this week for a conference that included a session on “What to Expect in the 119th Congress.”
The panel included staff members for committees that oversee election legislation: the House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules Committee. The forecast is still taking shape, but one priority is clear: the House has signaled it will again consider legislation known as the SAVE Act, which would require people who are registering to vote to provide documented proof of citizenship.
The House passed the legislation last year, but it stalled in the Senate. Thomas Lane, the elections counsel for the Republican majority on the House Administration Committee, noted that the bill was one of a dozen included in the so-called rules package adopted when the new Congress began in January. That means it’s essentially on a fast track, and difficult to amend.
Voting rights watchdogs have criticized the bill as unnecessary and harmful to eligible voters who may lack such documents through no fault of their own, pointing out there is no evidence of widespread noncitizen voting. Voters must already attest they are citizens when registering, under the penalty of perjury. With noncitizen voting being extraordinarily rare, experts say, the legislation would place too many burdens on both voters and election officials, for little gain.
But leading up to the 2024 presidential election, Republicans, including President Donald Trump, repeatedly promoted the notion that noncitizen voting was a big enough problem to influence the outcome, and worthy of urgent legislative action. At one point, Trump asked congressional Republicans to insist on passage of the bill as part of a deal to keep the government open; that ultimately didn’t happen.
Lane, one of four congressional staff members on the panel, said the SAVE Act will be a priority for the House this time. He acknowledged a push to consider what a voter identification requirement would look like and potentially revisit at least parts of other voting laws. Among them is a provision in the National Voter Registration Act that requires states to stop systematic cleaning of voter rolls 90 days before a federal election, a sticking point in ongoing litigation against Virginia.
It is far less clear what legislation might be able to draw the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster in the Senate, where Republicans have 53 seats. Tiffany Ge, the majority staff director for the Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stressed during the panel that federalism is fundamental to election administration, and said it’s important for states and localities to have the flexibility to do things in ways that make sense for them.
During the last Congress, McConnell was an original co-sponsor of Senate legislation that would have let states include a requirement on mail voter registration forms that applicants provide proof of citizenship, though the bill didn’t pass. That could suggest a legislative route he, at least, might support.
Speaking from the audience, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, raised several concerns about the SAVE Act, pointing out that not everyone has documents showing proof of citizenship, and said he objected to the part of the legislation that establishes criminal penalties for an election administrator who registers someone lacking the documentation. “They’re doing their best out there,” he said.
Arizona is currently the only state enforcing a requirement for voters to provide documented proof of citizenship. Other states, including New Hampshire and Louisiana, have now passed legislation requiring it, and several state legislatures are considering it or intend to do so, including in Texas and Michigan. Arizona voters who don’t provide it cannot vote in state and local elections.
That means Fontes is more familiar than most with the challenges of administering such a requirement: Arizona officials last year realized a database glitch meant around 200,000 voters were listed as having provided proof of citizenship when they had not. Separately, a Votebeat analysis of voters restricted to federal elections found voters living on Native land and on or near college campuses were more likely to have not provided the documentation.
Although Fontes said he agrees with the intent of restricting participation in elections to citizens, “there are some real issues.” It’s still unclear how Congress will address them.
Carrie Levine is Votebeat’s interim editor-in-chief and is based in Washington, D.C. She edits and frequently writes Votebeat’s national newsletter. Contact Carrie at clevine@votebeat.org.
