Democracy is about participation, not exclusion.
Austin, TX – Today, the United States House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a major voter suppression policy proposal that would disenfranchise millions of eligible Americans and undermine our access to the ballot box. The vote count was 220 to 208, with four Democrats voting for the bill and zero Republicans opposing it. The bill would require every registered and non-registered voter to update their registration information and present a passport or birth certificate in person. This is another attempt to hurt voters across the country; studies have shown that millions of eligible voters would be unable to produce the documents.
In response to this, Stephanie Gómez, Political Director at MOVE Texas Civic Fund, issued the following statement:
“MOVE Texas is outraged that the U.S. House, comprised of people who were elected to represent the interests of voters, would pass a bill that would prevent their constituents from voting and holding them accountable. This legislation would disenfranchise up to 21 million Americans – particularly rural voters, women voters, and young voters – who don’t have requested documentation readily available.
MOVE Texas and our membership have been fighting against a similar trick moving through our state legislature – Senate Bill 16 (SB 16) – that would create burdens for eligible Texas voters by using a similar form of deception. For years now, extremists in Texas and in DC have ignored the actual needs of our communities, like ensuring we have safe, affordable places to live or jobs that pay a living wage, to continue chasing unpopular, unproductive, and unneeded bills at the state and federal level.
“As we wait for the SAVE Act to take its turn in the U.S. Senate, young Texans prepping to fight back again against this legislative in the Texas House Elections committee hearing. During its Texas Senate hearing, over 300 Texans turned out to voice their opposition and they are ready to fight it at every step of the process, at every level of government.
“MOVE Texas remains committed to building a Texas that serves its people. SB 16 and the SAVE Act are the same tired attempts to make voting harder for people who live in rural areas, women who’ve changed their names after getting married, or college students who have their birth certificate at their parent’s house – and they see lawmakers’ intention to cut them out.
For more information on this assault on Democracy in Texas and ways Texans are fighting back, MOVE Texas’s Amber Mills also wrote an op-ed on the SAVE Act earlier this week, published in the San Antonio Report on April 8, 2025, calling on Reps. Cuellar and Gonzalez, to vote no on the bill.
###
MOVE Texas Civic Fund is a grassroots, nonpartisan nonprofit organization that builds the power of young Texans through civic engagement, leadership development, and issue advocacy.
