WASHINGTON—Unions and civil rights groups are girding for another battle over a massive Republican voter suppression bill, the so-called SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) Act.
Right-wing House Republicans demanded the GOP attach the SAVE Act to the annual military authorization bill, but their leaders said “no.” The right-wingers then revolted, joining all the Democrats to scuttle the military bill on a procedural vote just before the July 4 congressional recess.
So, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to appease his radicals, who are led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., plans to insert it into yet another so-called “reconciliation” bill when lawmakers return on July 11.
Reconciliation bills are immune from Senate filibusters. They’re supposed to only deal with tax and spending limits, such as President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” did last July 4. The SAVE Act is now Trump’s top priority, and Johnson is scrounging for ways to enact it.
Johnson says the key parts of the SAVE Act would virtually kill mail-in balloting and force voters to provide proof of citizenship every time they register to vote and/or go to the polls. He also contends it would eliminate “fraud in blue states.”
Johnson did not provide any proof of such fraud. Neither did the measure’s top sponsor, Trump, who’s made it his #1 cause and who still lies about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen” from him. But the SAVE Act “will guarantee the mid-terms” for the GOP, he declares, and ensure that Republicans won’t lose for “a hundred years.”
Former Trump Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem disclosed the real objective of the SAVE Act, though, four months ago. It’s “to make sure we have the right people voting, that we have the right people to lead this country.” In plain English: Right-wing MAGA Republicans, and few others.
Estimates of how many people would lose the right to vote via the GOP’s voter suppression bill start at 21 million, the number of women whose last names on their original voter registrations do not match their current names. Other numbers are higher.
The GOP plan drew the ire of the AFL-CIO.
“We must defend rule by the people and the right to vote,” the labor federation decided, via a resolution at its Minneapolis convention in May. “We strongly oppose restrictive voter ID laws that disenfranchise segments of the population by disproportionately impacting workers, women, people with disabilities and communities of color.
“We advocate for policies that make it easier for all to vote through national standards for early voting, mail-in voting, time off to vote, and registration. We oppose any measures that block fair access to the ballot box and support the restoration of the franchise to those who have served their time.
“We will harness our power to defend our right to vote, defend our right to vote by mail or in person, ensure free and fair elections, and uphold the constitutional rights of all people in our country,” the AFL-CIO declared.
The Communications Workers took their national campaign against the SAVE Act all the way to Alaska. There, unionized Association of Flight Attendants-CWA members mobilized outside the office of right-wing GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan to demand he oppose the measure.
The Republican voter repression bill would disenfranchise many voters in the North Star State. A large share of Alaskans are indigenous people, and most of them live in communities dependent on mail-in balloting, since they’re accessible only by boat or bush plane.
The AFL-CIO, the Communications Workers, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, both big teachers unions, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, AFSCME, the Service Employees, and 44 other groups signed a letter saying they intend to marshal their forces against voter suppression.
They want companies to publicly join in “to discuss the urgent defense of voting rights and the collective political power of the communities we represent.”
The coalition also demanded a full-scale “report on corporate political spending, contributions, and relationships connected to elected officials, organizations, and efforts advancing discriminatory redistricting schemes, or attacks on voting rights.”
That may be a tough sell, since corporate boards, unencumbered by accountability, consistently support the MAGA Republicans who demand renewal of Jim Crow, or worse. That includes supporting Trump.
But even as the SAVE Act is stalled on Capitol Hill, the right-wingers have taken their campaign for it to red states, the Brennan Center for Law and Justice at New York University reports. GOP-run state legislatures are approving, and GOP governors are signing, their own versions of the law.
“Sixty-one years ago, LBJ urged Congress to join him in ‘working long hours,’ even ‘nights and weekends,’ to ensure the right to vote. Republicans and Democrats joined together. They recognized the fundamental right to vote is not a partisan issue,” the Brennan Center said.
“We now have a president, speaking with the same tenacity and urgency, urging Congress to restrict that very right. We should not be surprised. But we should be prepared.”
The Brennan Center reports that in the last year-and-a-half, SAVE Act-like laws “have been enacted in seven states,” and elections for the 2026 midterms will likely be administered under proof-of-citizenship laws in five of them: New Hampshire, Wyoming, South Dakota, Ohio, and Utah. Two more, Florida and Louisiana, are waiting in the wings for 2027. Another six will have state SAVE Act proposals on their ballots in referendums this fall.
“Five more—Kansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee—will require some individuals whose eligibility to vote has been challenged through citizenship verification checks provide proof of their citizenship to prevent their registration from being canceled,” the Brennan Center added.
“And Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, and West Virginia will have ballot measures either making explicit that only citizens can vote or banning noncitizens from voting in elections, but these are largely symbolic and should not be conflated with SAVE Act-like laws that place documentary burdens on citizens to prove their status,” the center said.
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