Democracy Under Siege

The “SAVE America” Act is an Attack on Coloradan’s Freedom to Vote

On February 11, 2025 CO CD5 Representative Jeff Crank announced that he had voted for the SAVE America Act. His official press release misrepresents the effects of the act on the ability of his constituents ability to vote, justified to fix a statistically insignificant problem.  Election integrity resonates well with uninformed voters, but the logical conclusion is that the SAVE America Act is simply part of a concerted and sustained effort at voter suppression.

An Invented Problem

Alien Voting Remains Exceedingly Rare.  While Republican talking points tout “common sense” legislation and fear mongering, the Trump administration has cut funding to State and local programs to ensure election integrity, particularly in the cyber realm.  Reporting from the Koch-founded libertarian Cato Institute, the Bipartisan Policy Center, Ballotpedia, and Center for Election Innovation and Research consistently demonstrate the statistical insignificance of non-citizen voting.  According to the conservative Heritage Foundation’s election fraud database, Colorado has only experienced 24 confirmed instances of all categories of election fraud since 1982.

Included in this list of 24 cases are high profile incidents such as Tina Peters who attempted to tamper with voting machines on behalf of Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election.  Accused murder Barry Morphew was convicted of falsifying and returning his murdered wife Susan’s ballot as a vote for Trump several months after she went missing.  Sally Jane Maxedon was charged by Mesa County with six felony counts of identity theft, six felony counts of election forgery, and one misdemeanor count of voting twice. She conspired with postal carrier Vicki Lyn Stuart in casting stolen mail-in ballots for Trump in the 2024 election.

The ten most recent cases of election fraud in Colorado have been committed by Republicans.  The last Democrat convicted of election fraud was Angelo Felix Abad who was sentenced to up to six years for forging one or more signatures on a petition to place a state minimum wage increase referendum on the 2016 ballot.

Only one case in Colorado has ever involved a non-US citizen. Ajmal Shah of Afghanistan used falsified documents to attempt to register to vote in October 2003.

None of Colorado’s 24 recorded election fraud cases occurred in El Paso County or CD5.

The narrowest vote difference in a national level race in recent Colorado history was Lauren Boebert’s 2022 win over Democrat Adam Frisch for CD3, with Boebert’s margin of victory over Frisch of 546 votes (0.07%).  This margin is far greater than even all historical instances of Colorado election fraud combined could influence.

What is the SAVE America Act?  

The full title is the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act” (H.R.7296) and is often confused with the similar and overlapping SAVE Act (H.R.22) introduced in March 2025 and the even more restrictive Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act (H.R. 7300).  Key provisions of the three acts are compared by the Bipartisan Policy Center.  The full text of the House bill is found on the official congressional official legislation tracker.

Impacts to Coloradans if the SAVE America Act Passes 

Photo ID. Jeff Crank said in his official statement “Americans use an ID every day – to drive a car, air travel, and more.”  Although this sounds reasonable, the truth is around half of American citizens do not possess a qualifying ID.  The bill requires presentation of a physical eligible photo ID as proof of United States citizenship both to register (Section 2) and to vote (Section 3). Acceptable ID is defined as any of the following:

A Colorado Driver’s License Does Not Qualify. The bill permits a form of identification issued consistent with the requirements of the REAL ID Act of 2005, with the additional requirement that it also indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States. Colorado licenses and ID meet the REAL ID Act requirements but DO NOT indicate citizenship.

Current US Passport.  According to Center for American Progress (CAP) analysis, 62.5% of Colorado residents have passports (well above the national average), meaning up to 214,227 voting age residents of El Paso County do not have a passport.

Effectively a Poll Tax.  A standard U.S. adult passport book costs $130 (application fee), plus $35 (acceptance fee), plus $15 (photo at a post office) for a total of $180 for first-time applicants. The processing time is currently at about two months, or for an additional $60 expedited fee a passport can be processed in two to three weeks.  The 24^th Amendment indicates a citizen’s right to vote for any Federal office “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.”

Potentially in addition to the basic costs above, obtaining an original certified copy of a birth certificate usually requires a $20-$30 fee, a completed application, and valid ID (also note a standard Colorado state identification card typically costs $13.00 for residents under the age of 60).  Processing takes 3-5 days online via VitalChek or GoCertificates, or up to 30 days by mail.  These additional costs can also constitute a poll tax under the 24^th amendment.

Additional Burden on Women.  Jeff Crank claims in his official release that “this bill will also ensure there are no voter is disqualified [sic] due to a name change.”  In addition to the minimal financial and administrative hurdles to obtaining a passport, the CAP statistics cited above also indicate that 84% of women who are currently or have been in opposite-sex marriages have changed their legal name and therefore do not possess a birth certificate that could prove their identity and by extension citizenship status under the SAVE Act. In Colorado there are an estimated 1,268,345 female citizens old enough to register to vote whose names do not match their birth certificate (last name change or hyphenation). Note Pew also reported that approximately 5% of men who marry change their surname. Nationwide this would account for approximately 4 million men.  Per the DOS, if applying for first-time passport, or current name is different from a previous passport, a person must submit a certified copy of a legal document that explains the change. Acceptable documents include a Marriage Certificate, Divorce Decree, or Court Order for any other legal name change reasons.

For individuals without the above-mentioned legal documents, a person who has been using a different name for years but never legally changed it through marriage or court order, may still be able to get a passport by proving “customary usage”. This process is more complex and typically requires a Form DS-60 “Affidavit Regarding a Change of Name” or at least three certified or original public historical records showing a person has used the name exclusively for at least five years.

A Military ID Not Good Enough. The “applicant’s official United States military identification card, together with a United States military record of service showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States.”  Active-duty military personnel can obtain their military personnel records most efficiently online via the National Archives eVetRecs tool or the MilConnect website using a CAC card. Alternatively, members can submit a signed Standard Form 180 (SF-180) by mail or fax to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). Separated veterans may request their service records (DD214) from the NPRC, with high volume potentially affecting response times (as of this writing over a month and a half before income taxes are due, OPM is insufficiently staffed to take any calls). Approximately 15% of CD5 constituents are active military or veterans. Depending on an individual’s status and circumstances, obtaining service records may take anywhere from minutes to weeks.

Red Herring ID Options. The bill supposedly allows for “a valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States.”  Currently there are no federal or state IDs indicating place of birth aside from a passport. Some, but not all tribal IDs indicate place of birth.

Catch-All Remedy is Additional Documentation. The bill allows for “a valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government” other than the qualifying identification means described above if presented together with one of the following documents:

• A certified birth certificate (which must include all seven components specified in the bill)
• A hospital Record of Birth created at the time of the applicant’s birth which indicates that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States.
• A final adoption decree showing the applicant’s name and that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States.
• A Consular Report of Birth Abroad of born to a US citizen
• A Naturalization Certificate or Certificate of Citizenship
• An American Indian Card issued by the Department of Homeland Security with the classification KIC.

Fundamentally Changes How Colorado Votes

Jeff Crank’s official statement fails to acknowledge that the bill he voted for omits any provision for mail in ballots or ballot box drop.  It allows absentee voting and mail-in registration, provided a legible copy of an eligible photo ID is provided along with both the application for an absentee ballot and the actual ballot. 

In 2024, less than 2% of Colorado voters voted in person, of those who did, the majority were registered Republicans. 

The overall turnout rate of eligible voters in Colorado in the 2024 presidential general election was 73.1%, nine points above the national average turnout of 64.1%.  Colorado’s mail-in voting allows for low propensity voters, including those unable to take time off work to participate in the democratic process. 

Supreme Court precedent for interpretation of the Elections Clause clearly indicates that a federal law that invalidates or otherwise interferes with Colorado’s legally sanctioned method for conduct of elections is unconstitutional. 

Effects Are Immediate.  If passed, the SAVE Act would immediately impact the upcoming primary and midterm elections.  The last clause of the bill indicates it takes effect in “each State and jurisdiction” upon passage.

There are no provisions mentioned in the bill regarding whether the current registrations of 4,022,371 Coloradans would remain valid if the law were enacted. Passage into law would open the door to litigants challenging the eligibility of any Colorado voters who had been registered before the restrictive photo ID requirements go into effect. This would essentially accomplish Donald Trump’s suggestion that the midterms should be cancelled.

The State of Colorado would be forced to implement an unfunded program within 30 days in conjunction with federal authorities to regularly purge voter rolls of suspected ineligible voters using tools such as DHS’ SAVE System and databases. Jeff Crank’s official statement indicates that the bill “requires states to check for non-citizens and other ineligible registrants on their voter rolls at least once a month.”  Nowhere in the text of the bill does it say this. The actual bill says the process will be “ongoing.”  Colorado election officials already follow federal and state laws and rules for ensuring voter lists are updated on a continual and perpetual basis.  But in the case of the SAVE Act it begs the question of what justifies the resource expenditure for continuous monitoring given the onerous requirements to be entered into the system in the first place?

Reinstating exclusive in-person voting and implementing changes to Colorado IDs could take multiple election cycles, with the state’s taxpayers picking up the tab.

Chilling Voter Registration. The bill criminalizes accidental registration of non-citizens for election officials or other persons acting in their official capacity. In the case of Colorado’s only recorded case of non-citizen voter registration, the clerk who accepted the fraudulent naturalization documents would also be subject to the same felony conviction with its fines and five-year prison sentence as Ajmal Shah.  This will certainly cause delays, disruptions, and potentially erroneous denials of registration by risk-averse officials.

Status of the Legislation

The SAVE America Act is stalled in the Senate due to a few GOP members currently in opposition to the bill and the unpredictability of amendments that could be added during a “talking filibuster” process. However, even a week into the Iran bombing campaign President Trump is threatening to not sign any legislation until the SAVE America Act is passed. “Stalled” does not mean dead, and the significance of potential impact on the 2026 midterms cannot be ignored.