Take Notice Senate Libs: Democrats Can Vote For The SAVE Act

They’re not particularly brave, but they’re about as politically courageous as a modern-day Democrat can get. 

The four lonely liberals who voted for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, aka the Save Act, are at least smart enough to know that their constituents — constituents everywhere — believe only U.S. citizens should vote in U.S. elections. That knowledge just might save the bacon of the more politically vulnerable of this gang of four in next year’s election. 

Not all heroes wear capes. 

Their fellow Democrats, however, did not get the memo. They doubled down on some of the most ludicrous talking points the Democratic Party has yet to proffer, and that’s saying something for a club taken over by certifiably crazy people. 

Democrats Want Noncitizens To Vote

Last Thursday, the Republican-led House passed the election integrity measure 220-208, with all Republicans and our four Democrat mavericks on board. At its core, the SAVE Act aims to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in U.S. elections. It demands state election officials verify the citizenship of voter registrants through appropriate forms of identification. And it further requires states to do what they should already be doing: Cleaning their voter rolls of noncitizens, among other ineligible registrants. More so, the bill empowers citizens to bring civil lawsuits against election officials who fail to follow the national voter ID law. 

But congressional Democrats have peddled the same tired and false narratives that the vast majority of voters have rightly rejected. Republicans, they insist, are trying to disenfranchise voters by demanding that noncitizens be barred from voting in federal elections. 

“When they do that, they win elections,” said Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., a member of the House Administration Committee, which has oversight authority over federal elections. “So this is about saving Republican seats and elected officers, not about … election integrity.”

Former Federal Election Commission member Hans von Spakovsky and other election integrity proponents will tell you that Democrats have sought to expand their power via the eventual registration of millions of illegal immigrants that the Biden administration ushered in through open-border policies. 

“It’s a shame that so many other Democrats don’t think this is problem,” von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told The Federalist this week in a phone interview. “In fact, I think deep down they want illegal aliens registering and voting and getting away with it because they think it will help Democrats win elections.”

He pointed to liberal-led cities in Maryland, Vermont, California, and elsewhere that allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. The most glaring example is Washington, D.C. Senate Democrats refused to stop the practice in the nation’s capital, over which Congress exercises authority. Last month, New York state’s high court put the kibosh on a New York City’s left-driven law that would have allowed noncitizens to vote in municipal elections in defiance of the Big Apple’s own constitution. 

“Whatever the future may bring, New York City’s constitution as it stands today draws a firm line restricting voting to citizens,” the majority wrote in its 6-1 ruling. 

‘Simply Wrong’

While a photo ID is required to buy cigarettes and alcohol, open up a bank account, apply for food stamps and a host of other government benefits, Democrats insist it’s just too burdensome to ask someone registering to vote to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to vote. They’ve been driving the Big Lie that the SAVE Act will “disenfranchise millions of eligible voters who don’t have easy access to identification documents, in addition to women who changed their last names after marriage,” Democratic Party media stooge NBC reports. The fear-mongering fades in the light of the facts, that the SAVE Act provides protections and provisions for supplementary documentation for those who truly do have a challenge obtaining identification. 

“Those on the Left who claim that the SAVE Act will disenfranchise millions of married women are simply wrong; they ought to read the bill’s text and see that it provides mechanisms to ensure that this does not happen,” the Federalist Society asserts in “The Save Act: Fact v. Fiction.” 

Von Spakovsky said Democrats have long shown their stripes on the citizenship voting question. In 2015, old Clinton family amigo and former Democratic Party chairman, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, vetoed a bill that required jury commissioners to save information about individuals disqualified to serve on juries because, among other reasons, they are noncitizens. The bill required the information to be shared with local election officials to help them vet ineligible voters. 

“There is no possible reasonable justifiable grounds for vetoing a simple information bill like this unless Terry McAuliffe wanted illegal aliens to be able to vote in the state of Virginia and get away with it,” von Spakovsky said. 

In late October, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a lower court ruling that stopped Virginia election officials from removing some 1,600 “self-identified” noncitizens from Virginia’s voter registration database. 

Dems have long fought against basic, common-sense voter ID provisions — against the wishes of the vast majority of Americans. As my Federalist colleague Beth Brelje reported on Wednesday, a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows 75 percent of likely U.S. voters “believe it is important to prevent illegal immigrants from voting in U.S. elections, including 51% who say it’s Very Important.” And 64 percent of those surveyed said they approved of requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in national elections. 

‘American elections are for Americans’

Support for the election security measure comes from plenty of Democrats, too. Yet, only four House Democrats refused to toe the party line. What do they have to say about the SAVE Act?

Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii: “Noncitizen voting is illegal, and we should all know that noncitizens are not voting,” Case said in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. 

“The SAVE Act provides consistent national standards for what documentation is necessary to prove citizenship and the right to vote. It includes various acceptable forms of identification which most voter-eligible citizens should have and those who don’t should be able to obtain,” the congressman added. Fears of voter suppression “are overstated and should not prevent reasonable citizen ID requirements.”

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine: “Let me set the record straight: I voted for the SAVE Act for the simple reason that American elections are for Americans. Requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote is common sense,” Golden wrote on X. 

“Some claim that requiring proof of citizenship is too onerous a burden, or that it will ‘disenfranchise’ those whose names have changed for reasons like marriage. The truth is the SAVE Act ensures name changes will not prevent anyone from registering to vote,” the lawmaker added. 

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas: “I supported this bill because I believe in something simple: only American citizens should vote in American elections,” Cuellar said in a statement. “That’s how we keep our democracy strong and ensure every vote counts how it should.”

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.: “I do not support noncitizens voting in American elections – and that’s common sense to folks in Southwest Washington. Voting in our nation’s elections is a sacred right belonging only to American citizens, and my vote for the SAVE Act reflects that principle,” Perez said in a statement following her “yes” vote. 

Political Considerations

Liberals already are talking about primaries for the turncoat congressional Democrats. One commenter on the leftist Democracy Docket Facebook page went so far as to advise that “it’s time for women to stop taking mens’ names, stop dating and stop marrying Republican men.”

“Time for women to get partners who care about their well-being. Time for women to get their house in order without men if necessary,” Christie Flanagan, the liberal Lysistrata of Facebook, opined. 

Three of the four renegades represent politically mixed districts and remain vulnerable in 2026. The exception is Case, who annihilated his Republican opponent in November in his deep blue Hawaii congressional district. 

Golden narrowly won another term representing Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, defeating Republican challenger Austin Theriault by less than 3,000 votes, or 0.7 percent. The race was so close, Theriault sought a recount. 

Perez won a tight re-election bid against GOP challenger Joe Kent in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District. 

Despite facing federal bribery charges, Cuellar fended off a challenge from Republican Jay Furman to win an 11th term to Texas’ 28th Congressional District. 

The Cook Political Report considers the races in Golden’s and Perez’s districts to be toss-ups heading into 2026. 

There’s no real danger that the four Save Act Democrats will turn conservative anytime soon. They’re pretty dependable votes for their far-left party. Case votes with the leftist herd about 87 percent of the time; Golden, 77 percent; Cuellar, 75 percent; and Perez, about 70 percent, according to ProgressivePunch.org. 

‘I Try to be Optimistic’

In her defense of voting for the SAVE Act, Perez did note there’s little hope of passage in the Senate. The upper house, although controlled by Republicans, will need even more Democrat defectors to move the bill to the floor for a vote. 

“I also understand the SAVE Act stands no chance of passage in the Senate due to the filibuster, as well as several deeply flawed provisions,” the Washington Democrat said, promoting her own election reform bill. 

Von Spakovsky isn’t counting on a whole lot of courage from Senate Democrats. Election integrity denier, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats will make sure the SAVE Act does not pass the Senate. 

Some Dems in battleground states have yet to comment on how they might vote, but they should at least take into account the work that state legislatures and voters across the country — including their home states — are doing to ensure only citizens vote in U.S. and local elections. 

“I try to be optimistic, but we have some very radical senators that represent the Democratic Party in the U.S. Senate,” von Spakovsky said. “At the same time, I have seen bill after bill after bill in state legislatures that are mini versions of the SAVE Act, state laws requiring documentary proof of citizenship.”

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.