SAVE Act would make it harder, not impossible, for married people to register to vote

Congressional Republicans are pushing to pass a bill that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. The move worries voting rights advocates who say it would hinder registration among eligible citizens.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, would set federal standards for voter registration. The bill lists documents people could use to prove their citizenship when registering to vote, such as a birth certificate or passport. The bill’s text makes no mention of a marriage certificate or name change document.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a left-leaning voting rights advocacy group, more than 21 million voting-age American citizens — or 9% of eligible voters — don’t have ready access to documents to prove their citizenship.

Critics have also said the bill would make it difficult for a person who takes a spouse’s last name after marriage —overwhelmingly women in opposite-sex marriages — to register to vote. If someone lacks a passport with a current name, providing documents with the correct name would be more difficult. 

"If you are a woman that has changed your name from your birth certificate, let’s say through marriage and you took your husband’s name, you are no longer eligible to vote if this bill passes the Senate," said one TikTok user. 

That’s not quite accurate. The bill would make voter registration more difficult for married people who change their last names, and anyone whose name does not match the name on a birth certificate. But it would not prohibit it outright. 

The bill’s Republican supporters say the legislation is necessary to ensure that noncitizens don’t vote in U.S. elections. Federal and state laws already prohibit noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and cases of noncitizens voting are extremely rare. 

The bill, a priority of House Republicans, would require people registering to vote or updating their voter registrations to use certain identifying documents, including military IDs, enhanced IDs showing citizenship, birth certificates or passports to prove  citizenship. 

The House passed the bill in 2024, but it stalled in the Senate. In January, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, reintroduced the bill for the current Congress.

A passport alone would be sufficient to register under the bill, but a person who presents a birth certificate also would need a photo ID that matches the birth certificate’s information. About half of Americans don’t have passports, and the application process is expensive and time-consuming. 

For people who lack passports, any mismatch between their birth certificates and IDs would present problems with registration, Wendy Weiser, the vice president for democracy at the Brennan Center, said. Such a mismatch is common for people who change their names following marriage.

A Pew research survey found 79% of married women in opposite-sex marriages took their spouse’s last name. About 5% of men changed their last names after marriage. For same-sex marriages, Pew said the sample was too small to measure.

A 2006 Brennan Center survey found that 34% of women lack access to proof of citizenship with their current legal name. 

Proponents say one section of the bill addresses the needs of people with name changes. It directs each state to "establish a process under which an applicant can provide such additional documentation" to establish citizenship if the person’s documents don’t include matching information.

In a statement, Roy dismissed the criticism and argued the bill wouldn’t prevent people who have changed their names from registering to vote. 

"The legislation provides a myriad ways for people to prove citizenship and explicitly directs States to establish a process for individuals to register to vote if there are discrepancies in their proof of citizenship documents due to something like a name change," Roy said.

Featured Fact-check

Viral image

stated on January 27, 2025 in a Facebook post

Image shows President Donald Trump’s response “to Selena Gomez’ meltdown.”

In a statement provided by Roy’s office, Cleta Mitchell, the founder of the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, said married women regularly have to provide birth certificates and marriage licenses in order to change their names for Social Security documents, bank accounts and other documents. She acknowledged the process "is a pain," but said "millions of women do it every day."

Mitchell, a lawyer and former Oklahoma state representative, has pushed unfounded theories about voter fraud and worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

But Weiser said the provision isn’t explicit enough to guarantee that something such as a marriage license would be sufficient to prove citizenship. The bill requires states to have a process to address discrepancies, but states could implement that in different ways. 

The flexibility is also undercut, she said, by another portion of the bill that would impose criminal charges on election workers who do not adequately vet someone’s citizenship on registration documents. A person who registers an application to vote without proof of citizenship could be subject to a fine and up to five years in prison. 

"Election officials are going to be very wary of subjecting themselves to criminal prosecutions just to register someone to vote if their proof of citizenship doesn’t clearly meet the statutory requirement," Weiser said.

Women who change their names after marriage already face hurdles to vote in some states that require voter ID, PolitiFact previously reported. 

A TikTok video said that women who changed their name after marriage are "no longer eligible to vote" if the SAVE Act becomes law.

The bill does not make women ineligible to vote if they have changed their names after marriage. But its documentation provisions could make voter registration harder for people who change their names and don’t have valid passports. The overwhelming majority of people who change their names after marriage are women.

The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.