Attorney General Ellison leads opposition bill to that would create substantial barriers to voting
Leads coalition of 18 attorneys general in letter to congressional leadership: so-called SAVE Act would effectively disenfranchise millions of eligible voters across the country
March 31, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today led a coalition of 18 attorneys general in sending a letter to congressional leadership in opposition to H.R. 22, the so-called Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. Attorney General Ellison and the coalition argue that the proposed legislation would create unnecessary and burdensome proof of citizenship requirements that would effectively disenfranchise millions of eligible voters across the country.
The SAVE Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to require voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship before registering to vote. Attorney General Ellison and the coalition emphasize that this requirement would reverse three decades of progress made under the NVRA, which was designed to remove barriers to voter registration and promote greater participation in the democratic process.
“The so-called SAVE Act is far worse than a solution in search of a problem: it would do the opposite of safeguarding voter eligibility and would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters in Minnesota and every single state,” Attorney General Ellison said. “People across America are waking up to the fact that billionaires are currently running our country into the ground and they’re getting mad as hell about it, so the billionaires have come up with a plan to keep them from voting them out and Republicans in Congress are carrying the billionaires’ water yet again. I can’t say any of it surprises me, but I won’t stand for any of it.”
In the letter to House Speaker Michael Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the attorneys general emphasize that non-citizen voting is extremely rare. Studies show that in jurisdictions with high immigration populations, only 0.0001% of votes cast were by non-citizens. Despite this negligible risk, the SAVE Act would impose substantial burdens on eligible voters, particularly affecting poor and minority communities.
Attorney General Ellison and the coalition warn that the legislation would create significant obstacles for eligible voters, including:
- Requiring expensive documentation such as passports or birth certificates that perfectly match current names;
- Mandating in-person presentation of citizenship documents, effectively eliminating online voter registration systems currently available in 42 states;
- Creating barriers for married women and others whose birth certificates do not match their current names; and
- Jeopardizing the franchise for active-duty service members who cannot return to their local election offices.
“Over 21 million voting-age citizens do not have ready access to a passport, birth record, or naturalization record,” the attorneys general note in their letter. “And 80% of married women would not have a valid birth certificate under the SAVE Act because those women chose to adopt their partner's last name.”
The attorneys general also highlight concerns about the substantial administrative and financial burdens the Act would place on state election systems. The legislation would require states to fundamentally restructure their voter registration procedures and create new systems for document verification, while criminalizing mistakes made by election officials with penalties of up to five years in prison.
Attorney General Ellison and the coalition urge congressional leadership to oppose the SAVE Act and maintain accessible voting rights for all eligible Americans. Protecting election integrity should not come at the cost of disenfranchising legitimate voters.
Joining the letter that Attorney General Ellison led are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
