Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (CT-05) released the following statement on H.R. 8281, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which passed the House of Representatives, 221 to 198, on Wednesday, July 10, 2024:

“Today, I voted against dangerous legislation that would make it more difficult for American citizens to vote in federal elections, including veterans, married women, and individuals who do not have passports. Since 1924, noncitizens have been prohibited from voting in federal elections, and in 1996, Congress made noncitizen voting a federal crime – laws that currently remain intact.

According to various surveys and studies of U.S. elections, noncitizens have not voted in federal elections in detectable numbers. Under the ‘SAVE Act’ most Americans would be unable to register to vote using a driver’s license or other state-provided identification. Even more alarming, Americans would be prohibited from using Tribal IDs or even military IDs when registering to vote. Additionally, birth certificates would no longer be considered proof of citizenship for individuals who have changed their names, many of whom are married women. Furthermore, millions of Americans would be at risk of having their names purged from state voter rolls due to faulty sources of citizenship information at the state level.

The impact of this legislation would be vast and devastating. It would represent a hostile takeover of state-run elections by Congress, severely restricting Americans from registering to vote and participating in elections, and ultimately depriving millions of voters—including over 500,000 citizens in my district—of their constitutional right to vote.

This legislation has garnered strong and united opposition from dozens of groups that recognize the dangers these policies would pose to our democracy. National and local organizations such as the ACLU, NAACP, League of Women Voters, Southern Poverty Law Center, American Association of People with Disabilities, and Newtown Action Alliance are among those who signed a letter penned by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights voicing their concerns with this bill.

Now more than ever, we should be enacting legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that protects voters, not disenfranchises them.”