The SAVE Act Would Force Many Rural Americans To Drive Hours To Register To Vote

Soon, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act—legislation that would require Americans to provide documentary proof of citizenship, in person, when they register to vote and every time that they update their voter registration information. If the bill becomes law, the vast majority of Americans would need to use either 1) a passport or 2) a birth certificate in combination with government photo ID to prove their citizenship status.* The SAVE Act applies to all voter registration methods, but in place of current online or mail-in registration, it would require Americans to physically travel to their designated election office, during business hours, to present their documentation to an election official. In each federal election cycle, approximately 80 million Americans register to vote for the first time or update their voter registration information. While the SAVE Act threatens to disenfranchise millions of citizens overall, 60 million rural Americans would face some of the greatest obstacles to making their voices heard if the bill becomes law—including, in some instances, having to cross state lines. Citizens in Alaska and Hawaii could even be forced to take plane rides.

The SAVE Act would particularly harm rural voters because millions of them rely on remote voter registration methods—online voter registration and mail-in voter registration—to securely and easily register to vote. States have invested decades of technological development and resources to ensure that voter registration is accessible to all Americans, but the SAVE Act would rip away these services. In cases where Americans mail in a voter registration application, they would still be required to show up in person to present their citizenship documentation to their election official. Under the legislation, millions of rural Americans would be forced to drive long distances to their designated election office, which for many Americans is located in their county seat.

Registering to vote under the SAVE Act in rural America

To better demonstrate just how difficult it would be for rural Americans to register to vote under the SAVE Act, the authors of this column looked at some of the longest driving times that Americans would be forced to make in the 30 largest U.S. counties by area.**

Across these 30 counties, which represent eight Western states, Americans living the longest commute from their designated election office would be forced to drive, on average across the counties, four-and-a-half hours round trip and cover approximately 260 miles to reach their election office. About two-thirds of the 30 counties analyzed are classified by the Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Agriculture as entirely rural, while the other one-third are classified as partially rural. Even in the instances of partially rural counties, nearly all the areas from which these driving distances were calculated are classified as rural. In total, 15 million people live in these counties, with the median county population for the group being 48,000 people. (see Figure 1) But the least populous county, Catron County in New Mexico, is home to just 3,800 people. In all instances, only cities, towns, recognized unincorporated communities, and census-designated places were chosen to calculate driving distances, and the authors chose the fastest route for analysis. In instances such as Park County, Wyoming, where there is more than one designated voter registration office open on a regular basis, the closest office to the chosen community was selected.

The longest drive found by the authors is located in Mohave County, Arizona, where the citizens of Colorado City—a town of 2,500 people—would need to drive eight hours round trip to reach their designated election office in Kingman, Arizona. They would be forced to cover more than 500 miles and cross into both Utah and Nevada to take the fastest route. At current gas prices, this trip would cost them approximately $75.***

While Arizona currently requires voters to show proof of citizenship to vote in state elections, the SAVE Act would still mean significant changes for Arizonans. It is vital to point out that the state’s law, similar to the SAVE Act, nearly disenfranchised 100,000 voters during the 2024 election cycle as a result of clerical errors, while a separate issue relating to lack of proof of citizenship nearly disenfranchised another 40,000 voters. In addition to these concerning instances, the SAVE Act would require all voters registering by mail to show up in person to present documentation and jeopardize, if not entirely eliminate, online voter registration. For the 2022 federal election cycle alone, more than 87,000 Arizonans registered to vote by mailing in a voter registration application, and another 434,000 registered to vote online. This means that despite already having to provide proof of citizenship, Arizonans, especially those in rural areas, would face greater challenges to accessing the ballot box under the SAVE Act.

While this column focuses on the 30 largest counties by area in order to demonstrate some of the longest distances that voters would have to cross to register to vote, it is important to emphasize that in no way would long drives be limited to Americans living in these counties. The authors easily located numerous other drives that would take citizens between three and four hours to complete round trip, including in Hawaii (Hawaii County), Montana (Rosebud County), New York (Herkimer County), Texas (Brewster County), South Dakota (Meade County), and Washington (Clallam County and Lewis County).

Commuting under the SAVE Act in metropolitan areas

In addition to looking at driving times in the 30 largest U.S. counties, which have mostly a rural footprint, the authors analyzed commuting times for citizens to get to their election office in the top 10 most densely populated counties in the United States. These counties have 13.1 million people combined and represent six states and the District of Columbia. (see Table 2)

The authors found that Americans living the farthest from their designated or closest election office would be forced to commute, on average, nearly two hours using public transportation round trip—or drive, on average, one hour round trip—to show their documentation. As many of the residents of these major metropolitan counties do not own cars, relying instead on public transportation, millions of Americans would experience these longer commuting times. In instances where there was more than one designated election office available, the one with the fastest public transportation commute was analyzed for a chosen neighborhood.

These findings also in no way speak to how overwhelmed elections offices would be in these major metropolitan areas if election officials were forced to verify the documentation of hundreds of thousands of eligible citizens trying to register to vote in person every election cycle.

Conclusion

The sponsors of the SAVE Act seem to misunderstand how election administration works across the country, including the fact that all 50 states run their election systems differently—and generally in the way that best serves their communities. American citizens in all states are able to register to vote by mail, and those living in 42 states are able to register to vote online.**** Offering these registration methods has been vital to ensuring rural Americans are able to easily and securely access the ballot box, but that would no longer be the case under the SAVE Act.

The legislation aims to deprive tens of millions of Americans of the accessible voter registration methods that they’ve been using for years, even decades, and rural Americans would suffer the most under this new regime. American citizens have a constitutional right to vote, and lawmakers, sworn to uphold the constitution, cannot in good conscience force citizens to drive seven or eight hours to register to vote, let alone cross state lines to register to vote in their county. Congress needs to protect American citizens’ ability to make their voices heard. Elected officials must block the SAVE Act and ensure rural Americans can continue to access the ballot box.

The authors would like to thank Bill Rapp, Anh Nguyen, and Meghan Miller for their production assistance.

* The SAVE Act claims that Americans could use a REAL ID so long as it “indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States.” No federal law, including the REAL ID Act of 2005, requires REAL ID licenses—driving or nondriving—to indicate citizenship status. Legally residing noncitizens can obtain REAL ID in all states, and nearly all Americans would be unable to use their REAL ID as documentary proof of citizenship, as their REAL ID licenses do not indicate their citizenship status.

** The methodology excludes counties in Alaska where some voters could conceivably be forced to fly in order to show election officials their documentation.

*** Gas cost calculations were based on the highway miles per gallon for a Ford F-150, which was the bestselling vehicle in the United States for many years, and the average price of gas per gallon in each county at the time of calculation according to AAA. The distance of a round trip was divided by the highway miles per gallon of the Ford F-150. This figure was then multiplied by the price of gas per gallon in the county to determine the estimated cost of a round-trip journey to the election office.

**** North Dakota does not conduct voter registration. Forty-six states and the District of Columbia accept the national voter registration form, and many have their own mail-in registration form. New Hampshire and Wisconsin accept the national form as a request for their own mail-in registration form. Wyoming is the only state where the national form cannot be mailed back, but the state does have its own mail-in voter registration application.