WASHINGTON — Missouri’s senators are pushing for passage of the SAVE America Act, a top priority of President Donald Trump. The bill, which would require photo identification to vote and proof of citizenship to register to vote, faces an uphill battle when it comes for a vote in the Senate, which could be as early as this week.
Supporters tout the bill, which has already won U.S. House approval, as a way to prevent illegal voting in federal elections. Most Democratic lawmakers and organizations that advocate for voting rights say the bill will disenfranchise millions of Americans who can’t assemble the required paperwork.
U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., has been vocal about his support for the bill and calls concerns about the bill a “red herring.”
“The Democrats are objecting because they want people to be able to cheat,” Schmitt said Thursday.
Opponents of the legislation argue the real red herring is the idea that hordes of people who aren’t eligible to vote are casting ballots.
“The president has been promoting this conspiracy theory since 2020,” said Michelle Kanter Cohen, policy director and senior counsel at Fair Elections, a nonpartisan voting rights and election reform organization. “The actual evidence is that it is not a widespread problem.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he doesn’t have the votes to pass the bill in his chamber. However, with mounting pressure — including from the White House — he said he plans to bring it up for a vote this week. That vote is expected to fail as Republicans only control 53 Senate votes, seven short of the 60 needed to overcome a procedure that is unique to the Senate: the filibuster.
If it were to pass, the legislation would mean considerable changes for Missouri’s voter registration process. Currently, eligible residents can register to vote online, by mail or in person with the last four digits of their Social Security number and drivers license number. Once registered, voters can update their information online.
The bill would have less of an effect on Election Day, as Missouri already requires voters to show a form of ID or cast a provisional ballot to be checked against their voter registration.
The SAVE America Act would essentially eliminate online and mail voter registration. People would be required to register to vote in-person with a U.S. passport or birth certificate, which serve as not just proof of identity but of citizenship. Missouri Real IDs would not be a sufficient form of identification for registration as noncitizens with legal status are eligible for Real IDs. That includes permanent residents and people with student or work visas.
It is already a requirement to be a U.S. citizen and be 18 years old on Election Day to vote in federal elections. It is also a felony to vote as a noncitizen, Cohen added, and there are strong disincentives for doing it.
“There are harsh penalties that come with that, as well as ... potential for deportation,” Cohen said. “Many people are on a path to citizenship, and the last thing they want to do is jeopardize that path to citizenship.”
In Missouri, from 1982 to 2025, there have been 30 criminal convictions for voter fraud, less than one case per year on average, according to the right-of-center Heritage Foundation. Just one of those convictions was for voting while ineligible. The 2017 case involved a Cuban national living in Kansas City who voted illegally in six elections. The man was indicted and pleaded guilty to federal charges of election fraud.
Challenging requirements
Instead of preventing the already small number of cases of noncitizen voting, advocates warn, the bill could add undue barriers to voting.
“While the SAVE Act would impact Americans in every state across partisan lines, certain groups would be disproportionately burdened by this law,” said Xavier Persad, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “We’re talking about voters of color, voters with low incomes, older Americans, people who change their names.”
That includes millions of women who have changed their names after marriage, people in rural areas who may have to travel to register in-person, victims of natural disasters whose important documents have been lost or destroyed and other groups who may struggle to obtain the proof of citizenship required under the act, Persad said.
And obtaining proper documentation can be confusing and costly, said Denise Lieberman, director and general counsel at Missouri Voter Protection Coalition. A U.S. passport costs more than $100; a replacement naturalization document is between $505-555, and a certified copy of a birth certificate costs $15 in Missouri.
“For this reason alone, the SAVE act is clearly a poll tax,” Lieberman said. “It does not make any accommodation for these costs, nor does it make any accommodation for the burdens.”
She added that even with 25 years of experience in voting rights and election law, she still faces challenges when helping clients obtain certain documentation.
In 2024, less than half of Missouri residents, 37.2%, had valid U.S. passports, according to an analysis of State Department data by Center for American Progress, a left-leaning policy institute. The center also estimates that there are about 1.4 million women in Missouri whose names do not match their birth certificates due to a last name change or hyphenation.
Proponents of the bill argue that despite the challenges, voter ID requirements are popular with the American people. A Pew Research Poll backs that up, 83% of Americans support requiring all voters to show photo ID to cast a ballot.
But Christine Wood, co-director of Declaration for American Democracy, said the SAVE America Act goes further than a voter ID law because of the requirements it implements at the registration stage of voting.
“Folks agree that we need to make sure that our elections are secure,” Wood said. “There’s many states that do have common sense voter ID laws in place. The SAVE act is not a voter ID law. It’s a voter suppression law.”
Local election authorities
Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon said one concern is that the bill keeps changing, making it unclear how it might affect Missouri voters and election authorities. If the act passed as is, the requirement to register to vote in person could mean that election offices need additional space and staff, she said.
Lennon added that voter registration is already checked against databases including Social Security, the Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Revenue, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Corrections.
“We do a lot of vetting to make sure that voters are eligible,” Lennon said.
The bill also includes a provision that would hold election officials criminally liable if they do not adhere to the new requirements. Persad said he worries about what that means for local election authorities.
“This would create enormous bureaucratic barriers for election officials that would require just a revamping of their entire systems,” Persad said. “Without any funding.”
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., denies that the SAVE Act would financially burden election authorities in Missouri. When asked if he was concerned about the financial implications, Hawley simply said “no.” Schmitt said that the bill won’t raise the cost of elections in Missouri as voters are already required to show photo ID to get a ballot.
Neither senator directly addressed the additional cost that could come from managing an influx of in-person voter registrations.