WASHINGTON — The centerpiece election legislation from congressional Republicans would require voters to prove their citizenship when registering, raising concerns among state election officials about how it would be implemented and who would pay for it.
In recent interviews, secretaries of state from both parties said they were wary of federal lawmakers creating state election rules and of costly new procedures that would come with them, including collecting and storing sensitive documents. They also criticized a provision that would allow for civil or criminal penalties against any election official who registers someone without evidence of citizenship.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said there is no federal database that states can use to confirm a person’s citizenship status. Election officials described databases maintained by the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security as unreliable.
“Reasonable people can agree that only citizens should be voting in our elections,” said Bellows, a Democrat. “If they want us to prove citizenship, then they need to build the infrastructure for that to happen.”
With the urging of President Donald Trump, House Republicans are expected to move quickly to advance the legislation, known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. A proof of citizenship requirement was included in a package of priority bills that can bypass committee and head straight to a floor vote. That could happen as soon as this week, though the bill’s prospects in the Senate are uncertain amid likely Democratic opposition.
State election officials said they generally support steps to ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting, an issue that typically involves a tiny fraction of ballots and is more often an individual mistake rather than an intentional and coordinated attempt to subvert an election. Debates largely center on how best to accomplish that, whether the responsibility should fall on the voter or whether the federal government should do a better job providing states with reliable data to verify citizenship status.
“Every time there’s federal legislation, I’ve got concerns, especially when the feds talk about things that the states typically do on a year-by-year, day-to-day basis,” said Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican. “Just because you think it’ll work in your state doesn’t mean it will work in everybody else’s state.”
Republicans in Congress have said the current process for registering voters is filled with loopholes that have allowed people who are not U.S. citizens to vote in past elections and relies on a system in which voters sign an oath that they are a citizen.
Before the 2024 election, Trump pushed claims without evidence that such people might vote in large enough numbers to sway the outcome. In fact, voting by noncitizens is rare and can lead to felony charges and deportation.
Since his victory in November, Trump has continued to press for changes to how elections are run, including requiring proof of citizenship.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who oversees elections in her state, said she was concerned about federal overreach and the legislation lacking the support states will need to make it work.
“It definitely shouldn’t be on throwing election workers or secretaries of state or county clerks in jail for accidentally registering a noncitizen to vote when we don’t have adequate tools to even verify citizenship,” she said.
Another concern is funding. The bill does not include an appropriation, leaving states to cover the costs of its implementation. Federal money for elections has long been a point of contention for some election officials.
“If you talk to the vast majority of election officials, they will tell you that federal investment in our elections is sorely needed, especially if folks in Congress are going to be talking about things like the SAVE Act, which will only increase costs of running elections and increase federal oversight and involvement in our elections,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat.
Voting rights groups have said married women who have changed their name could have trouble registering under the SAVE Act because their birth certificate lists their maiden name.
Those groups also have criticized the bill’s requirement that people provide documents in person, saying that could be a challenge for people in rural parts of the country where visiting an election office might require a long drive and taking time off from work.
Under the current registration system, those seeking to register are asked to provide either a state driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number and are directed to sign an oath swearing they are a U.S. citizen. A few states require a full Social Security number.
Republicans say states can add people to the voter rolls even if they do not provide that information and that some noncitizens can receive Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. The legislation outlines documents that could prove citizenship, including a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, a passport or a birth certificate.
It also allows for states to establish a way for voters to provide other supporting documents. Only about 50% of Americans have a passport, and adoption of REAL ID has been slow. As of January 2024, about 56% of driver’s licenses and IDs in the U.S. were REAL ID-compliant, according to data collected by DHS.
Currently, eight states have laws requiring proof of citizenship for voters while lawmakers in 17 states have introduced legislation this year to add that requirement, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Experiences have been mixed. In Kansas, where a proof of citizenship requirement was in effect for three years, the state’s own expert estimated that almost all the roughly 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote during that time were U.S. citizens eligible to vote.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has said his state has been successful in establishing a system with the state’s motor vehicle agency to verify citizenship. He and 20 other Republican secretaries of state sent a letter this past week asking the Department of Homeland Security to improve its database and eliminate fees for using it.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, described federal data as “totally unreliable” and pointed to an issue in his state, which has for years sought to implement a state-level proof of citizenship requirement. A recent state audit revealed instances in which U.S. passports might not prove citizenship because U.S. nationals – those born in U.S. territories – are eligible for passports but are not eligible to vote in U.S. elections.
“We’ve got so many issues to deal with and such a poor understanding of our own laws that I think a massive shift like this is just problematic,” Fontes said. “I don’t think Congress has taken the time to ask the folks who actually do this work if what they are proposing is workable in the first place. And that’s dangerous, especially when you are criminalizing some of these activities.”
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