Advocacy – Save Your Vote!
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act (H.R. 22 / S. 128) as introduced in the House on January 3, 2025 by Rep. Chip Roy (R. TX) and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee (R. UT). This is the same bill that was passed by the House in July 2024. The bill was re-introduced in this new Congress because it did not pass the Senate and, therefore, expired at the end of the 118th Congress. See here to see if your Representative voted for the 2024 Save Act.
The SAVE Act has been characterized as a narrow bill mandating proof of citizenship for voter registration but would in fact exclude millions of eligible Americans from registering and voting.
The bill would require all applicants registering to vote in Federal elections to present “documentary proof” of US citizenship IN PERSON to an election official prior to the registration deadline. This would eliminate the mail-in and online registration that overseas Americans have used for decades.
The SAVE Act would be devastating to the overseas vote. It would disenfranchise the millions of overseas Americans who would no longer be able to register to vote on-line or by mail. In addition, it would prevent many Americans in the US from registering to vote using their driver’s license, would mandate error-ridden voter purges, and could subject election workers to harsh criminal penalties simply for doing their job.
Congress should reject H.R. 22 / S. 128.
AAWE thanks our sister organization, AARO, for this information and advocacy effort.
Email your Senators and Representative!
First, prepare your text (see sample text).
Personalize the sample text with your personal thoughts and/or experience. We suggest this because personal communications have more impact. But, this sample is only a suggestion, so you may modify it in any other way you wish.
Make sure that both sets of wording to be adapted and the brackets are deleted.
Go to https://democracy.io/#!/
- Enter your voting address in the United States and click “Submit.”
- Choose your two Senators and Representative and click “Write to them!”
- Fill in the subject line with “Vote NO on the SAVE Act – H.R. 22/S. 128”
- Cut and paste your prepared text onto the website form. Make sure that no brackets appear and that you have adapted any wording necessary!
- Complete the required information:
- Email address
- First Name/Last Name/Prefix
- For the phone number enter your US phone number if you have one. If you don’t have one, you may use your overseas number (without hyphens), but you must enter 10 digits, so drop numbers or add zero(s) if your overseas number is more or less than 10 digits. The system will not accept “+”.
- Add a topic for each Congressperson from the pull-down menu, e.g., Social Security. If you can’t find that topic, choose a topic that seems closest to Social Security (i.e., pensions, social welfare, etc.).
- Click “Submit.” You have done it!
Sample Text – Please Modify
I write to you as a constituent who lives overseas.
[ADD ANY PERSONAL OR VOTING INFORMATION THAT WOULD ATTRACT THE ATTENTION OF YOUR SENATOR]
The SAVE Act (H.R. 22 / S. 128) which mandates proof of citizenship for voter registration, would eliminate mail-in and online registration by requiring all applicants registering to vote in Federal elections to present documentary proof of US citizenship IN PERSON to an election official.
The SAVE Act would disenfranchise me as well as millions of other civilian and military overseas Americans.
I believe that the House may soon vote on it and, if passed, it would then be considered by the Senate. I am writing to ask you to vote AGAINST the SAVE Act if/when the bill is brought to a vote.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
