Supporters say the Save America Act would strengthen election security, while critics warn its requirements could create new barriers to legal voters.
President Donald Trump is intensifying pressure on Congress to pass the stalled SAVE America Act, a Republican-backed proposal that would establish new federal identification requirements for registering and voting in elections.
“Congress must pass the SAVE America Act,” Trump said in his primetime White House address on July 19.
The legislation would require people to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. It would also require voters to present government-issued photo identification before casting a ballot.
SAVE America Act requirements. (SBG)Trump has consistently framed opposition to the legislation as a threat to election security, claiming, “The only people that would vote against that are people that are going to cheat in an election."
Democrats and voting-access advocates argue the issue is more complicated. An analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center found that 12% of registered voters do not have the documentary proof the legislation would require, potentially creating a barrier for millions of eligible voters.
An analysis shows the SAVE America Act's ID requirements could disenfranchise a large number of voters. (SBG)Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer promised Democrats would continue to block the proposal.
“It ain’t gonna fly with us, with the courts or with the American people,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.
Twenty-four states already require voters to present photo identification, while 36 require some form of identification. However, the SAVE America Act would establish a federal standard beyond the identification requirements currently used by the states.
Voter ID laws by state. (SBG)House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said the proposal reflects broad public support for voter identification requirements.
“These common-sense policies are supported by 83% of the American people,” Johnson said.
Polling has consistently placed public support for voter ID requirements near 80%, with majorities of Republicans, independents and Democrats expressing support.
Polling consistently shows majority support for voter ID, even when broken down among party lines. (SBG)But some Republican senators have raised concerns about attempting to implement a federal overhaul before the November midterm elections.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said the proposals currently under consideration could not be put into effect in time.
“All of them are fundamentally flawed and impossible to implement by this election,” Tillis said. “Details matter, planning matters, execution matters.”
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has also opposed a federal mandate. In an opinion article, Murkowski wrote that the Constitution largely leaves election requirements to the states. Restricting states’ ability to tailor their election systems, she said, would be a “recipe for trouble.”
Britain’s voter ID requirement
A similar debate unfolded in Britain after Parliament passed the Elections Act in 2022. The law requires voters in Great Britain to present photo identification when voting in person.
The requirement was used in British local elections for the first time in 2023 and the general election for the first time in 2024.
Dr. Ralph Scott, a political scientist at the University of Bristol who specializes in British politics, said Britain joined the ranks of many other democratic countries in requiring identification at polling places.
“Some of it was like a kind of modernization thing because the UK was quite unusual in not having this requirement,” Scott said.
Scott and Dr. Edward Fieldhouse examined election data to determine how the new rules affected participation. Their research found that 1.3% of eligible voters either did not attempt to vote because they lacked acceptable identification or went to a polling place and were turned away.
Results from UK's 2024 general election that required voter ID. (SBG)“When you kind of scale up to the whole voting-age population, it is quite a significant number of people,” Scott said. “And depending on where those are concentrated in seats, it could make a difference.”
The overall effect of voter ID requirements on turnout remains unclear, Scott said. Some research has found that the requirements can discourage participation, while other evidence suggests they may motivate affected groups to become more politically active.
Groups disadvantaged by a voter ID requirement may become angry about the restriction and more determined to vote, Scott said.
Who was most likely to lack ID?
Scott’s research found that poorer and less-educated voters were less likely to possess qualifying identification. People with disabilities were also less likely to have an accepted form of ID.
The research did not find major differences in ID ownership based on ethnicity or gender.
Age, however, was a factor. Passport ownership generally declined with age, while driver’s license ownership varied among age groups.
Those findings complicated predictions that Britain’s voter ID requirement would clearly benefit one political party.
The Conservative Party, broadly comparable to the Republican Party in the United States, drove passage of the law. Data based on factors including age, income and wealth initially suggested Conservative voters would be less disadvantaged by the requirements than voters aligned with other parties.
The political effect was not clear-cut, however. After Conservative losses in Britain’s 2023 local elections, one Conservative member of Parliament blamed the ID requirement, arguing that some older voters who supported the party had been unable to cast ballots.
Cost and access barriers
Scott also identified practical barriers facing people without passports or driver’s licenses.
Not everyone needs either document in daily life, he said, and obtaining them isn't free. A driver’s license in the UK can cost about 50 pounds, while a passport can cost approximately 100 pounds. Applicants may also need to schedule appointments and take time away from work.
Similar obstacles exist in the United States, where identification documents are not always free and obtaining them can require appointments and time away from a job.
Britain introduced a voter authority certificate for people who do not have another acceptable form of identification. The government is also considering expanding the list of documents voters may present, potentially including bank cards.
Scott said governments imposing a new barrier intended to protect against voter fraud should look for ways to remove other barriers facing eligible voters.
Britain is considering automatic voter registration in addition to expanding the types of identification accepted at polling places.
“It’s always about making that ability to participate in voting easier for people and more straightforward,” Scott said.
A warning against politicizing elections
Scott said another lesson for the United States involves the danger of turning the mechanics of voting into a deeply partisan issue.
When confidence in election administration becomes tied to party loyalty, he said, voters may be more inclined to blame the system when their preferred candidate loses rather than considering other explanations, such as the candidate’s quality or the party’s platform.
The SAVE America Act faces significant obstacles in the Senate. Republicans could attempt to advance the legislation through a process that bypasses a Democratic filibuster, but doing so could become entangled in the September funding debate and increase the risk of a federal government shutdown.
