Non-citizens voting in federal elections has been proven to be extremely rare and is already illegal under Section 216 of the
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
Opponents of the bill argue that it is intended to suppress
voter turnout, as voter registration forms already require
driver's license numbers or the last four digits of the applicant's
Social Security number in compliance with the
Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which registrars are required to use under HAVA to confirm eligibility through databases maintained by the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the
Social Security Administration, and the
U.S. Postal Service.
The analysis also found that an estimated 69 million women and 4 million men have a last name that does not match their birth certificate. This provision would similarly impact
transgender people whose legal names do not match their birth certificates.
Research from the
Brennan Center, "indicates that more than 9 percent of American citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, don't have proof of citizenship readily available". The center said the act "would compel voter roll purges that are bound to sweep in eligible American voters" and "when Arizona and Kansas implemented similar policies at the state level, tens of thousands of eligible citizens were blocked from registering," concluding, "the SAVE Act's proof-of-citizenship requirement is a solution in search of a problem."