Or at least it should be – which makes it bizarre that Republicans aren’t making a full-court press on national election reforms to require voter ID, a policy solution that enjoys the support of 80% of Americans, according to Pew Research. This isn’t even a partisan issue: 95% of Republicans are in favor as are 71% of Democrats.  

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) and our own Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) have introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or (SAVE) Act. An extremely straightforward piece of legislation, SAVE will require: 

• States to obtain proof of citizenship – in person – when registering an individual to vote.  

• States to remove non-citizens from existing voter rolls.  

Lee and Roy’s companion SAVE America Act  requires Voter ID to vote in federal elections. 

“By requiring Voter ID and proof-of-citizenship, the SAVE America Act will ensure that our federal elections are decided by U.S. citizens–and U.S. citizens alone,” Lee and Roy said in a joint statement.  

Common sense though this is — and to be clear, 176 countries already require proof of identity to vote — the U.S. Senate has deprioritized the bills. Running out of time before too many senators and representatives depart D.C. to wage tough re-election battles, congressional leaders appear to be consigning SAVE to the back burner, or at best, rolling it up in a large omnibus spending bill that will be less appealing to imperiled Republican moderates than SAVE itself — namely, the currently debated one to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

Republicans need to keep their eye on the ball and ensure SAVE makes it down the court. DHS is not going to collapse: it got $165 billion in last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Official spending data shows about $73.5 billion unobligated for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), about $47.6 billion for Customs and Border Patrol (CPB), and about $22 billion for the Coast Guard just for the first quarter of 2026. 

To the extent DHS needs additional funding, this can be addressed later in the year, even after the election. But if SAVE isn’t passed now, its provisions simply won’t apply in time for the election (which is what its opponents want). If Republican members of Congress would like to keep their jobs and their majority, they need to do what 80% of Americans want them to and pass the SAVE Act. This is especially the case since previous bad election cycles like 2006 and 2008 saw Republicans lose re-election in blue states by as little as a couple hundred or fewer votes. SAVE-style requirements do not exist or are often not enforced in places like Maine, New York, and California, where control of Congress will be decided. This may help explain why many of these moderates support SAVE, while they are wary about appropriating more money to DHS given that the agency still has proverbial gas in the tank. 

Predictably, Democrats are invoking bogus arguments to try to lead the GOP astray on this. They argue that showing a piece of ID (somehow) brings back Reconstruction Era practices like poll taxes or that it will (again, somehow) bar women who change their last names after getting married. Given that Republican women are probably more likely to both get married and change their names, especially here in Lee’s very own Utah, this argument is falling particularly flat. But of course, Democrats benefit if even a smidgen of cheating is allowed in our elections. And whatever diehard Republicans may think about the validity of ICE actions in Minnesota this winter, the reality is that if Democrats can cajole the GOP into abandoning SAVE and prioritizing more funding for the already-funded agency, progressives’ electoral picture improves even more. Even CNN has held called Democrats out over their SAVE ridiculousness, but that hasn’t stopped the shenanigans. 

Under the Biden-Harris administration, at least 10 million illegal aliens poured into communities nationwide – to say nothing of those already here beforehand and those here legally who admit they vote in our elections. In many states (including Utah) non-citizens are eligible for driver’s licenses, which lets them illegally register to vote in Federal elections.  

Sen. Lee has a reputation as one of the best vote counters in the Senate. If he believes the measure can pass, then it can. It’s time to fix American elections, or at least put Democrats firmly on the record. There is no conceivable reason to oppose voter ID. Unless you want to cheat.  

Jared Whitley has worked in the US Senate for Orrin Hatch, the Bush White House, and the defense industry. The Top of the Rockies competition named him best columnist in the Intermountain West in 2024.