February 24, 2026
Dear Senator,
We, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 146 undersigned organizations, write to express our strong opposition to S. 1383, the “SAVE America Act,” H.R. 7300, the “Make Elections Great Again Act,” and H.R.22, the original “SAVE Act.” The Leadership Conference intends to include your position on any of these bills in our voting record for the 119th Congress.
Our multi-racial democracy rises and falls on ensuring that every citizen can participate in our elections and decide who may best represent them. But we are witnessing unprecedented disinformation campaigns and intrusions on the ability of states to make sound decisions on how to run their elections. Driven by this misinformation, all three bills contain an unnecessary and burdensome requirement that will make it harder and more expensive for eligible U.S. citizens to register to vote. They do this despite the fact that state election officials take painstaking efforts to identify and correct the relatively few instances of mistakes or errors.
The proof of citizenship requirements in these bills are not necessary to secure American elections. Instead, they would do nothing more than exclude eligible voters—particularly Latino, Black, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Native American citizens; married women who have changed their names; low-income people; and people with disabilities—from the electorate and our democracy. This federal push to make voting harder builds upon increasingly restrictive voting laws enacted throughout the country in recent years, and it would prevent millions of eligible voters from exercising their most important civil right.
Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), 31 states have enacted 114 restrictive voting laws, which disproportionately burden voters of color. The harm has been palpable: Racial disparities in voter turnout have been increasing, particularly in areas formerly protected by the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance provision, which the Court dismantled.
The provisions in these bills would only increase the disparities and further reduce turnout among certain groups of voters. That is what they are designed to do. Instead of being honest about what is behind the desperate push to enact these bills, proponents constantly resort to baseless allegations of voter fraud—which are deeply rooted in dangerous myths and stereotypes, and which continually get knocked down in courtrooms, statewide audits, and independent investigations.
These bills require documentation that millions of American citizens simply do not have. Approximately half of American adults do not have a passport, and two-thirds of Black Americans do not. Older citizens are less likely to have them. In some states, such as West Virginia, Mississippi, and Alabama, over 70% of citizens do not have a passport. Latino and Black citizens are less likely to have a current driver’s license, and the same is true of people with disabilities. Latino citizens are most likely to have problems voting because of an issue related to their ID. The bills would also disproportionately burden married women and other people who have changed their name. Nationwide, 69 million married women do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name. And the reliance of these bills on federal databases would increase the likelihood that citizens will see their registrations wrongly purged or their personal information compromised.
The bills would also needlessly impose significant and unfunded administrative burdens on election officials throughout the country, increasing—rather than decreasing—the likelihood of problems in elections, from mistakes to outright discrimination. And they subject these hardworking election officials to criminal penalties simply for doing their job, creating the possibility of prosecution even if they register a fully eligible U.S. citizen voter, if that person hasn’t shown the required proof of citizenship.
Any of these bills would turn the constitutional responsibility of Congress to ensure free and fair elections on its head. As such, we urge you to reject them.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Advancement Project
Advocates for Trans Equality
African American Policy Forum
AFT All Voting is Local Action
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
American Atheists
American Civil Liberties Union
American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees
American Humanist Association
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
Andrew Goodman Foundation
Arab American Institute (AAI)
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum
Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund (AALDEF)
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote)
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance-AFL-CIO (APALA)
Asian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network
Autistic Self Advocacy Network