John,

As part of their continued attacks on both democracy and on immigrant communities, right-wing extremists in Congress are trying to attach the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to must-pass government funding legislation―a dangerous and unnecessary attempt to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

Let’s make one thing very clear: there is absolutely no evidence that large numbers of undocumented immigrants are voting in federal elections. In 2016, the Brennan Center for Justice investigated 23.5 million votes in 42 jurisdictions that covered 44 states and only found an estimated 30 incidents of non-citizens voting—0.0001% of all votes cast in the 2016 election.¹

The SAVE Act plan is a solution looking for a problem, and all it will do is further suppress votes in vulnerable communities, particularly minorities and low-income voters, who may struggle to produce the necessary documentation.

Right-wing extremists in Congress—under the leadership of House Speaker Mike Johnson—want to exploit this as an election issue to fire up their base of voters, and they’re threatening to attach it to a must-pass government funding bill this month. Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is opposed to the plan, but right-wing members of Congress are not giving up their attacks on voting rights of people in vulnerable communities.²

Take action now to demand Congress reject the SAVE Act and fight against disenfranchisement in vulnerable communities.

Proof-of-citizenship requirements disproportionately affect people of color, people with low incomes, and naturalized citizens, who may be wrongly removed from voter rolls due to outdated or incorrect data. More than 9% of American citizens of voting age don’t have easy access to their proof of citizenship; that’s true of nearly 11% of people of color.³ This bill would make it significantly harder for these citizens to participate in our democracy, all under the guise of "election integrity." But really, it’s low-income and communities of color who often lack the time and money to retrieve or replace documents like a birth certificate.

Anti-democracy members of Congress are doing everything they can to undermine our electoral system by making it harder for people to vote.

We must stand against these blatant voter suppression tactics and Congress must reject the SAVE Act and protect the right to vote of every American. Congress should take actions that will help voters and promote democracy such as by strengthening protections against discrimination in voting and expanding access to the ballot for all communities to ensure that everyone can fully participate in our democracy.

Add your name to demand Congress reject this right-wing effort to silence voters.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, CHN Action

¹ Noncitizen Voting: The Missing Millions
² McConnell’s big fear on the next budget fight
³ Millions of Americans Don’t Have Documents Proving Their Citizenship Readily Available