As Trump pressures Congress on the SAVE America Act, states are pushing their own versions

As the Republican campaign to pass the SAVE America Act has stalled in Congress, even amid mounting pressure from President Donald Trump, efforts are underway at the federal level to close the gaps.

Lawmakers in a dozen states have advanced legislation this year that would require citizens to prove they are U.S. citizens to register to vote or bring a photo ID to the polls, according to the Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan election watchdog group. Those proposals are the two central planks of the SAVE America Act at the national level.

The latest example comes in Florida, where the Republican-led Legislature is poised to pass a bill this week that would require election officials to verify the citizenship of voters by using state databases when they register to vote or update their registration, as well as during registration. When it comes to voter eligibility, they will be asked for proof of citizenship.

The law, when it reaches the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis to be signed, will take effect next year, after the mid-term elections.

Bills to add proof of citizenship requirements to voter registration have also passed both legislative branches in South Dakota and Utah, where they await signatures from their Republican governors.

Mississippi lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature have passed bills that would require some voters to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. They will need to approve amendments to the law before it goes to the Republican governor for his signature.

In Iowa, Republicans in the state Senate passed a bill that would ask some voters for proof of citizenship, sending it to the House. And in Kansas, House Republicans passed a similar bill.

Also, new voter ID restrictions are being considered and adopted by at least one legislature in eight states, according to the Voting Rights Lab: Utah, Iowa, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Idaho, Arizona and Kentucky.

Impersonation and non-citizen voting — the problems these bills seek to address — are extremely rare and already illegal. But election experts warn that these proposals will affect many US citizens without full access to the documents required by the bills for voters.

More than 9% of American citizens of voting age do not have readily available proof of citizenship, according to a study by the Brennan Center of Justice.

A national version of the SAVE America Act has emerged as a major focus for Trump in recent weeks. After the bill passed the House last month, it has languished in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass — but Republicans only control 53 seats.

Trump has said he won’t sign other pieces of legislation until the SAVE America Act is passed. He also called for restrictions unrelated to gender-affirming medical care and transgender participation in sports to be added to the bill.

“I’m not doing anything until they do it,” Trump told NBC News on Monday.

Meanwhile, states with Republican-controlled state legislatures have enacted similar measures.

A Florida bill would add proof of citizenship requirements and limit the types of IDs voters can show to vote. The state has had a voter ID requirement on the books for years, but this bill would prevent people from using student IDs, debit or credit cards, social assistance cards and retirement home ID cards to prove their identity at the polls.

Democrats and voting rights advocates have pointed out that some voters may not have proper access to other forms of ID. They also warn that many voters may not have a certified birth certificate or legal documents detailing the name changes that would be required to prove their citizenship.

“More than a million Florida voters may receive letters from their election administrator informing them that they have 30 days to produce written proof of citizenship, or they may be removed from the voter rolls,” said League of Women Voters Florida President Jessica Lowe-Minor.

Lowe-Minor said her figure comes from using the estimate that 9% of Americans do not have easy access to the proper documents for Florida’s voting-age population. Most Florida driver’s licenses are already REAL-ID compliant, which means millions of voters’ citizenships are already there. It is not clear how many voters do not have driver’s licenses in the state.

Lowe-Minor said a member of the unit was unable to help their retired mother get a government ID because she had been married three times in another state and did not have decades of records to change her name. Democratic state Rep. Ashley Gantt told a story on the House floor about her aunt, who was born in a home during the Jim Crow era and did not have a birth certificate.

“The right to vote should not depend on whether someone can track down expensive documents from decades ago,” Democratic Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis said during a debate on the Florida Senate floor.

But the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, GOP state Sen. Erin Grall, pushed back on efforts to expand acceptable voting IDs, saying people could print fake IDs and impersonate them to vote.

“We have seen technology change over the years, almost anyone can print an ID at home,” he said during the debate. “They may be responsible for printing their own homeowners association.”

GOP state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, who sponsored the bill in the House, said the proposed list of IDs was designed to align Florida’s bill with the national SAVE America Act.

“If you appear in the election for the purpose of election integrity, we want to make sure that you are the person you are, and that you have not stolen anything,” he said. “So our list will be consistent with what Congress is currently considering in the SAVE America Act.”

Outside of Florida, the bills vary. Legislation in South Dakota and Utah will require voters to have or show proof of citizenship to continue voting in state elections. Both would use a bipartisan election system similar to Arizona’s, where courts have ruled that the state can’t stop voters without proof of citizenship to register and vote in state elections.

Ten states currently have strict photo ID requirements for voters at the polls, though almost all fall short of those set forth in the SAVE America Act. Many states — including Florida — have strict ID requirements at the polls, and many lawmakers are considering tightening those laws this year.

In New Hampshire, lawmakers want to eliminate student IDs from being used at polling places, while bills in Arizona and Missouri would add new ID requirements for mail-in voters.