White House urges Congress to pass Save Act on voting rules

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Donald Trump is urging Congress to quickly pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, legislation that would impose stricter voter eligibility and registration requirements, the White House said Thursday.

"What the president is suggesting, and I just spoke to him about this, is that Republicans and Democrats in Congress should pass the SAVE America Act," spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a news conference.

Leavitt said the legislation would ensure that states are abiding by federal election law by removing noncitizens from their voter rolls.

She said the bill would mandate voter ID for casting a ballot and require individuals to provide proof of US citizenship when registering to vote. She described the measures as broadly popular and necessary to uphold election integrity.

"These are very common sense policies and proposals that 89% of our country agree with. So that's what the president is talking about.

"Again, I just spoke with him about this, and he's calling on both Republicans and Democrats to pass it into law and to send it to his desk as quickly as possible," she added.

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer previously said that one of the tools to "nationalize" elections is the SAVE Act.

"I want to be very clear: the SAVE Act is dead on arrival in the Senate, and every single Senate Democrat will vote against any bill that contains it," he said.

Schumer on Monday slammed Trump’s recent comments suggesting that Republicans should “nationalize” elections ahead of midterms.

His remarks came after Trump called on Republicans to “take over” voting in at least 15 unspecified places, framing the move as a necessary “nationalization” of the voting process to address what he claimed are corrupt state election processes.

"Does Donald Trump need a copy of the Constitution? What he's saying is outlandishly illegal," Schumer said.

The 2026 midterm elections are scheduled for Nov. 3 and will determine all 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats.