Senate to vote on SAVE America Act; Major impacts to county election administration

Key Takeaways

The Senate will vote on the SAVE America Act (H.R. 7296/S. 1383) as early as next week (week of March 16). The White House has signaled the legislation as a top priority, urging Senate leadership to bring it to the floor. To learn more about how we got here read our previous article.

The SAVE America Act: A Brief Overview

The SAVE America Act builds on the framework established in the previously House-passed SAVE Act (H.R. 22), which would create additional major and costly unfunded mandates for counties when it comes to administering elections. The SAVE America Act builds on the SAVE Act by expanding federal involvement, including strict voter identification mandates and citizenship re-verification requirements at the voting polls in order to cast a ballot. The SAVE Act passed the U.S. House on February 11by a vote of 218-213. In addition to the updated provisions included in the SAVE America Act, there are also active discussions about including provisions that would restrict or eliminate mail-in voting.  

How would the SAVE America Act impact counties?  

As currently written, this bill presents major challenges for counties to properly implement proposed changes. The bill would impose administrative challenges, requiring counties to update complex systems with inadequate time. The SAVE America Act also authorizes no federal funding to assist election administrators in implementing these requirements.

Specifically, the SAVE America Act forces county election administrators to adapt with no resources to overcome the challenges. NACo has outlined the major issues for counties as follows:

• Unfunded federal mandate. The bill would require counties to make major changes to voter registration and verification procedures without providing dedicated federal funding for implementation. Estimates show that implementation could be 11.3 times more than current federal funding levels made available by Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grants of $45M for fiscal year 2026 at $510 Million in additional costs each election cycle, which does not include infrastructure estimates for all mail-in voting states.  
   
• State and Local Federalism. Election administration is primarily governed by state law. A single federal standard could create legal and operational conflicts for counties required to comply with both state and federal requirements.
   
• Insufficient implementation timeline. Counties need significant time to update systems, develop procedures, train staff, and educate voters. An implementation period of at least 18 to 24 months would be necessary to avoid disruption.
   
• REAL ID is not proof of citizenship. REAL ID compliant licenses do not uniformly verify U.S. citizenship. This could create confusion, inconsistent review, and processing delays. Only a handful of State’s REAL ID verify citizenship.  
   
• Criminal penalties for election workers. The bill’s liability provisions could discourage election workers and volunteers from serving at a time when many counties already face recruitment challenges. Currently, the onus on a non-citizen who registers or votes is on the illegal voter. SAVE America Act proposes a radical change in how we punish fraudulent voting.
   
• Major training burden. New documentary proof of citizenship requirements would require extensive training for election staff and poll workers nationwide, placing additional strain on local election offices for between 770,000 and 1.2 million poll workers and election administrators nationwide. This could require between 2.5 million and 5 million additional hours of training during the initial implementation cycle alone to prepare the election workforce for these changes.  
   
• Risk to eligible voters. Without sufficient preparation and voter education, new documentation requirements could create barriers for eligible voters because of missing documents, delays, or administrative errors. Potentially restrict 2.37 million voters from registering to vote due to procedural or administrative delays from improper documentation required at the time of registration.

NACo has previously sent a letter to Congress regarding the SAVE Act and potential impacts to county election administrators.  

Read NACo's Letter