Four Democrats joined all Republicans in the U.S. House on Thursday in favor of a measure to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.
None of those Democrats are from Michigan.
“In order to preserve this republic, we must uphold what it means to be able to vote in a U.S. election,” Rep. Chip Roy, the Texas Republican sponsor of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, said in a statement cited by NBC News. “I am grateful that my colleagues answered the call and passed the SAVE Act, as this serves as a critical first step to ensure that we maintain election integrity throughout our country.”
The legislation cleared the lower chamber on a vote of 220-208, with Democratic Reps. Ed Chase of Hawaii, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state, in support.
All of Michigan’s Republican House members backed the bill, while Democrats who opposed included Michigan Reps. Hillary Scholten, Debbie Dingell, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Haley Stevens, Rashida Tlaib, and Shri Thanedar, according to the roll call.
“Let me be clear: only United States citizens should be deciding our elections. Republicans are trying to sell the SAVE Act as a way to stop non-citizens from voting, but we know that’s already illegal. What this bill really does is make it harder for citizens to vote, especially women,” Scholten alleged. “This bill doesn’t solve a real problem—it creates one. A busy working mom juggling a job, kids, and everything else life throws at her shouldn’t have to jump through bureaucratic hoops just to exercise her fundamental right to vote. That’s not election security. That’s voter suppression.”
Scholten, like many Democrats, argued women who marry and change their names would be required to prove the name change in order to vote under the SAVE Act.
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Supporters note married women must go through the same process to change their names for a host of other documents, from bank accounts to driver’s licenses, while pointing to provisions in the SAVE Act that ensure married women aren’t disenfranchised.
Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., told The Associated Press the SAVE Act “contemplates this exact situation” regarding married women with name changes, and it “explicitly directs states to establish a process for them to register to vote.”
In addition to requiring proof of citizenship, the SAVE Act also requires the removal of illegal immigrants and other ineligible voters from state voter registration databases, and provides a means for citizens to sue if that doesn’t happen.
“The only way to prevent this disenfranchisement is by requiring proof of citizenship when individuals are registering to vote to prevent such illegal votes from being cast in the first place,” Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.
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The issue is pertinent in Michigan, where Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson documented last week at least 16 instances of illegal votes cast in the Great Lakes State in 2024.
Contradicting her own testimony before Congress last year that “there is no evidence that noncitizens are voting,” cross references between Michigan motor vehicle records and the state’s Qualified Voter File turned up 15 instances of illegal votes cast last year.
And while the review covered the vast majority of voters who cast ballots using their driver’s license or state ID, it omitted plenty of others who used a different form of identification, such as tribal or student IDs.
“This is a serious issue, one we must address with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer,” Benson said in a statement. “Only U.S. citizens can legally register and vote in our elections. Our careful review confirms what we already knew – that this illegal activity is very rare.
“While we take all violations of election law very seriously, this tiny fraction of potential cases in Michigan and at the national level do not justify recent efforts to pass laws we know would block tens of thousands of Michigan citizens from voting in future elections,” she said.
Benson’s comments to Congress in September came about a month before Haoxiang Gao, a University of Michigan student from China, cast an illegal ballot in Washtenaw County using his student ID. The case, exposed only after Gao attempted unsuccessfully to retrieve his ballot, is the product of expanded voting privileges in Michigan that make it impossible to verify identification before votes are tallied.
Benson, a former hate crimes investigator who plans to oversee her own election for governor in 2026, has steadfastly opposed the SAVE Act, as well as similar efforts to require proof of citizenship and identification to vote in Michigan.
Benson has also refused to proactively remove ineligible voters from the state’s bloated voter rolls, which have swelled to more than 100% of the voting age population in recent years.
The SAVE Act now moves to the U.S. Senate, where a Democratic majority last year killed the same legislation following approval by a Republican majority in the House.
Republicans now hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but would likely need 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster.
If approved, the legislation would essentially codify an executive order from Trump requiring proof of citizenship to vote that’s currently facing a legal challenge from Democrats.