A Republican push to ratchet up voter registration requirements nationwide has passed the House with the support of Montana’s representatives and will now head to the Senate.
The SAVE America Act is intended to make voter registration more secure — and too difficult for many Americans to comply with, opponents say.
Republican Montana Reps. Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing spent the week ahead of Wednesday’s House vote telling Montanans that the proposed law, backed by President Donald Trump, is necessary for election security.
“I’m proud to stand on the side of common sense and use my vote to restore confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections that has been eroded by progressive governance and four years of systematic illegal immigration,” Downing said in a statement emailed Wednesday.
The bill calls for new voters to produce proof of citizenship, and for states to cross-check voter rolls with a Department of Homeland Security system used to screen for federal benefit eligibility.
Zinke described the act’s increased registration standard as essential at the Republican Winter Kickoff in Great Falls Feb. 6. He told Montana Free Press in a text message Tuesday that his vote is in step with his constituents.
“Seventy percent of Americans support voter ID,” Zinke said. “The SAVE America Act is straightforward common sense. Only Americans should be voting in American elections, and each vote should only count once.
“Protecting the integrity of our elections is not controversial, it is essential to maintain trust in our elections.”
Gallup, in an October 2024 poll, put support for proof of citizenship for new registrants at 83%
Critics of the act say voter fraud is rare in the United States. A Stanford University study found that statistical claims alleging voter fraud used by President Donald Trump and his allies to challenge Trump’s 2020 loss to Joe Biden were “shockingly flimsy,” stemming mostly from misunderstandings about voter file information. There were 62 lawsuits filed challenging the 2020 results. None were successful.
The voter registration requirements in the SAVE America Act would likely disenfranchise millions of lawful voters, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, an elections watchdog group. The Brennan Center looked at decades of investigations by state and federal governments, as well as election data, and concluded that voter fraud in the United States is “vanishingly rare.”
The bill passed by the House this week requires Americans to produce a paper birth certificate or passport when registering to vote. The Brennan Center estimates that 21 million Americans don’t have easy access to those documents.
“It presumes access to documents that I think it’s fair to say many of us don’t have. I mean, I certainly don’t know where my paper birth certificate is located. And I think that that is probably not unusual for most 50-year-olds in Montana,” said Alexander Rate, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, which advocates for voting rights.
The bill also requires states to run their voter rolls through a Department of Homeland Security database to check for citizenship issues. The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE program, is designed to check for government benefit eligibility. The Brennan Center told MTFP on Feb.3 that information in the SAVE database has proven too old to be effective and generates too many false positives.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where previous versions of the SAVE America Act have failed to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to pass. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, is one of 48 co-sponsors of the bill. He was unable to accommodate an interview for this article, said Daines spokesperson Gabby Wiggins. Daines became a sponsor of the bill in January. On social media, Daines has been correcting messages inaccurately declaring that he opposes the SAVE America Act.
U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Montana, did not respond to emails for this article.
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