Well Mikey, I can explain it to you, but I don’t expect you’ll be able to understand it.
Non-citizens are already banned from voting in federal elections under existing law, and doing so is a serious felony with prison time and deportation. There is no gap here that needs “fixing,” and there is no evidence of widespread non-citizen voting. So passing another law to make something that’s already illegal “extra illegal” does absolutely nothing to protect elections.
What the SAVE America Act actually does is something completely different. It requires documentary proof of citizenship to register, not just an ID. That means a passport, birth certificate, or similar paperwork. And here’s the problem, millions of eligible American citizens do not have those documents readily available.
That includes married women whose names no longer match their birth certificates, seniors who no longer have original documents, rural voters without easy access to records, and lower income Americans who cannot easily afford or obtain replacements. A driver’s license or even a Real ID would not be enough under this bill.
So what happens? Eligible citizens show up, try to register or update their registration, and get turned away because they don’t have the right paperwork in hand. Not because they aren’t citizens, but because they can’t immediately prove it in the narrow way this law demands.
That’s why it’s voter suppression. It doesn’t meaningfully stop illegal voting, because that’s already illegal and extremely rare. It does create new barriers that disproportionately block lawful voters.
And when you make it harder for eligible citizens to vote, you’re not protecting democracy, you’re shrinking it.
It makes sense to those citizens not trying to destroy democracy.