The SAVE America Act is a Gen Z poll tax

Have you heard of the SAVE America Act? If you tuned into the president's recent State of the Union address, you probably heard him refer to it as the legislative response needed “to stop illegal aliens and others … from voting in our sacred American elections.” The SAVE America Act, which recently cleared the House and is currently pending in the Senate, would require proof of citizenship — for example, a passport or birth certificate — when registering to vote. 

Make no mistake: If enacted, the SAVE America Act will weaken one tool all American adults possess in their toolbox of liberties. Their vote. Due to structural inequities, the bill will disproportionately impact poor Americans, Black Americans, and brown Americans. But it will hurt another group too — young Americans. We cannot allow it to become law.

Since the founding of our country, young people have played a crucial role in shaping its future. 

Alexander Hamilton was just 21 when he joined the fight for independence in 1776. John Lewis was 23 when he challenged America to “wake up” at the 1963 March on Washington. And Amanda Gorman was 22 when she helped us see the light — and be the light — as the 2021 inaugural poet.

Millions of young Americans — whose names will never make it into the history books — have done their part by showing up to the ballot box in election after election. In 2020, 50% of eligible young voters cast a ballot, with turnout eclipsing 65% in some states. After a chaotic year of pandemic, racial unrest, and economic collapse, 60% of young voters chose what they hoped would be a return to normalcy. These results elicited flashbacks to 2008, when an estimated 51% of young people turned out and voted for Barack Obama more than 2 to 1 over John McCain to deliver change and lead us out of a crippling recession. 

Over the past five decades, young voters have built up their political power. In 1971, the ratification of the 26th Amendment finally lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. The following year, young voters tipped the election in favor of President Nixon, who prevailed largely because he registered and turned out more young voters than his opponent. 

Now, more than 50 years later, registering young voters remains key to winning any election. Volunteers from campaigns and organizations like Rock the Vote and When We All Vote have shown up at concerts and music festivals to register millions of young people. When I worked for the National Football League, I helped launch NFL Votes, an initiative aimed at registering NFL players and fans. These types of efforts have brought more young people into the fold of our democracy and established a sense of civic duty among them.

In 2024, failures around youth voter registration coincided with a lower youth turnout and ultimately with my former boss Kamala Harris’s electoral defeat. Nearly 20% of non-voting youth reported that they were out of town or had problems registering. Of those young people who were not registered, 23% said they did not know where, how, or by when they had to register. In states like Arkansas, which does not allow same-day, automatic, or online registration, only 33% of eligible youth cast a ballot. 

The SAVE America Act would universalize this reality, making it much harder to register young people to vote. If it becomes law, then forget about the voter registration drives. What young person carries their passport or birth certificate to the skate park? Or to a Beyoncé concert? An estimated 24% of young people don’t even have ready access to those documents in the first place. The young people who need to obtain a passport will have to pay $165 to get one. The estimated 69 million women whose birth certificate doesn't match their legal last name will be out of luck. The requirements of the SAVE America Act will impose a poll tax on young people and put them at a distinct democratic disadvantage. 

Ironically, some of the young voters who stand to be disenfranchised by the SAVE America Act might very well have otherwise voted for the party championing it. Michigan, for example, allows same-day, automatic, and online registration. The state experienced an even higher youth turnout in 2024 than in 2020. Trump won the state and did better among young Michiganders than he did four years earlier. Other nationwide indicators of a rightward shift among young voters suggest that the SAVE America Act would backfire — by blocking from the ballot box some of the very voters who are trending Republican.

To be sure, election integrity is foundational to our civic process. However, it’s worth noting two things. First, it’s already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. And second, non-citizen voting rarely ever happens. The supposed justifications of the bill seem more like fiction than fact. 

No amount of fiction can change the fact that the SAVE America Act would remove young voters and voters of color from the federal electorate at a time when we should continue to add more. To any senator who thinks that by voting for this bill, you'll “save America” — please, just let my generation handle it.

Gevin Reynolds (2025 cohort) writes about democracy and politics. A former speechwriter to Vice President Kamala Harris, he is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at Stanford Graduate School of Business while concurrently earning a JD at Yale Law School.  Gevin aspires to create media platforms that reengage disaffected Americans in civic life. 

Knight-Hennessy scholars represent a vast array of cultures, perspectives, and experiences. While we as an organization are committed to elevating their voices, the views expressed are those of the scholars, and not necessarily those of KHS.