One of the first bills being considered in the newly sworn-in Congress is the SAVE Act. It requires that all voters provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote. According to Republican proponents, the bill aims to prevent non-citizens from voting, thereby making our elections safer.
It is illusory explanation, a solution in search of a problem. It is illusory because it sounds good — who could be against making our elections safer? — and, then, we stop thinking. However, when you think about it, how do you prove you’re a citizen? A driver’s license doesn’t prove it. Being in the military doesn’t prove it. The only current document that we have that proves you’re a citizen is an American passport, and only half the country has a valid passport.
In the 2024 election, many pundits were surprised by the “inroads Trump had made in previously solid Democratic areas,” such as Native American counties in northeastern Arizona and the counties surrounding Atlanta. This shift was less about a movement toward Trump and more about the suppression of the Democratic vote.
Republicans have been promoting various schemes to make it less likely for Democratic voters to cast their ballots. These include voter ID laws, purging voter rolls, reducing early voting hours, limiting mail-in voting, and decreasing the number of polling places, which leads to long lines on election days. All of these tactics disproportionately affect likely Democratic voters.
It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote, and every systematic investigation into illegal voting reveals that it is a vanishingly small problem, indicating that our elections are already safe. The elections of 2020 and 2024 were considered among the safest and least corrupt in our country’s history.
The SAVE Act is a clear attempt at voter suppression by the Republican Party. If we are to have a chance at saving our democracy and halting the entrenchment of oligarchy in the U.S., we must stop the SAVE Act from passing. Therefore, I urge you to call your Members of Congress to lobby against it.
Call your Members of Congress
Here’s what you need to do when calling your Members of Congress:
- Use a Script: Always have a script ready when calling your representative. This isn’t a casual chat; you’re expressing your opinion on an important issue. A script helps you be efficient and ensures you don’t leave anything out.
- Be Polite: I cannot emphasize this enough. You are speaking to a real live low-level person in the office. Regardless of the issue, it’s not their fault, and emotionally abusing them is simply wrong.
- Phone Numbers: Below are the switchboard numbers for the White House and Congress, along with links to find office numbers and other contact information.
The Script for Calling Your MoC
When you call your Member of Congress, be prepared for someone to answer or for their voicemail to be available. Here’s a suggested script:
Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from [STATE and LOCALITY].
I’m calling today to tell [YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS] that we do not need the SAVE Act to protect our elections from illegal voting. Voting fraud is virtually non-existent in our country. Our elections are already the safest in the world, and you know that.
The SAVE Act is blatant bid for the Republican Party to further suppress likely Democratic voters by placing more barriers in the path of voting. It is anti-democratic and will limit the opportunities of all eligible citizens from exercising their Constitutional rights to vote without making our elections any safer.
Thank you for your time and attention.
IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied.
Contact Information
For a the full monty regarding what to do when contacting government office holders from the local to the federal level, please see Influencing Your Member of Congress and Other Government Office Holders: A Guide to Surviving 2025 and Beyond. However, if you are ready to go and confident, here are the numbers you’ll need or the links to find them. The switchboards are in Washington DC, so business hours are in EST. They are also busy, so you may want to contact your MoC’s office directly. Often, they are busy or have filled their voice inboxes, so you may want to use an alternate strategy for influencing them as outlined in the guide.
- Call the White House switchboard at 202-456-1414 or the comments line at 202-456-1111 during business hours.
- Get contact information for U.S. senators.
- Find website and contact information for U.S. representatives.
- Call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 during business hours. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Representative or Senate office you request.
If you found this guide to contacting your MoC about the SAVE Act helpful, then please consider doing one or all of the following:
- Share this post with someone you think will contact their MoC.
- Like or Rate this post using the like button after the post (requires a login) or the stars above it (no longin required).
- Comment on the post telling us what you think about the SAVE Act — rant here all you want — or how it went you contacted your MoC.
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Image Atrribution
The image was found on the Wikipedia US Congress entry by using a DuckDuckGo Creative Commons License search.
The Psy of Life 
First, absolutely everyone get on this: call, write, then call again. Keep your fingers warmed up; we’ll be doing that often in the coming years.
Next, though, remember to breathe. Here are a few reasons why it’s OK to breathe after you’ve done your civic duty:
I know everyone hasn’t changed their DL to the Real ID DL yet. But, Real IDs do include one’s birth certificate-at least that you submitted it for scanning, among other required docs-so those DLs will prove citizenship. So many states have already passed laws about DLs so that non-citizen immigrants’s licenses will indicate non-citizenship. So many state governments have been doing this voter ID crap for over a decade, now, since Pres. Obama was first elected, that a federal law is redundant, and a poor expense of we the people’s time and money when work and passage of other bills need to be prioritized. As it was during the first Trump admin when they went after this.
Just my .02. Do your civic duty, as Jack presents! Then breathe.
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Howdy Ali!
I’m a bit chagrined, but this is the first I’m hearing of REAL ID. It’s one of the things you miss by being out of the country for thirty years, so thank you for pointing that out. It makes this law even less necessary, especially given the Republican Party’s concerns with federal overreach and state’s rights. As they say, elections are state run.
It makes it even clearer that voter ID laws have been an effective deterrent to voting. I don’t know why the for-profit media hasn’t been looking into the effects of GOP voter suppression laws and efforts. They got enough reporting at the time they were being passed, but then Obama was in the WH and the Resistance was in its ascendency, so I guess that explains it. Our fair weather political press.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Please don’t be chagrined! I kinda thought since you’re a out-of-towner, as it were, that some of that would have slipped by entirely, especially since it began coming about under GW, but was put in place after Obama was elected. It was one of those True The Vote bugaboos. The statute linked here mentions it within, but “Real ID” still sounds just as creepy as it ever did, no doubt worrying people who haven’t had to deal with it here in the US. Initially, not having a Real ID would preclude people from getting on planes, and some trains and buses. Over the years, that deadline has been extended, because some people have trouble gathering all their documents (mostly older people, whose stuff isn’t as easy for Vital Stats departments to locate.) And, yes, that makes this yet more unnecessary and redundant, as was pointed out when they tried this after Trump was inaugurated the last time.
Again, it’s no slipup. People should be paying attention to what our electeds do, and stay on top of directing them. And I appreciate you making sure to help us stay on track on that!
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Howdy Ali!
The key to its effectiveness as voter suppression is that “some people have trouble gathering all their documents.” The data folks in the Republican Party and Trump campaigns know exactly where most of the people who will have trouble gathering their document are and who they are likely to vote for. The SAVE Act is taking the most successful voter suppression tactics incubated in the states nationwide.
Huzzah!
Jack
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shared…printed out the script and have begun calling.
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Thank you, Suze. You are the BEST! Or one of the best. Okay, among the best. One of the many who rank as very very good.
How’d the phone calls go? Any voicemails? Any full voicemail boxes?
Huzzah!
Jack
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Lankford’s box was full…BUT I got a call back as I made sure to request one at the end of a LONG recorded spiel. Spoke my mind and was told my concerns were “recorded”.
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Howdy Suze!
Recorded as in took notes, audio recorded, or a tally mark made? Sometimes I don’t know if there is a difference. But, good on you for calling and Lankford’s office for actually calling you back. I’m impressed.
Huzzah!
Jack
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a tally mark made as a “citizen’s vote” on a bill. It is extremely important and can change votes to pro or con depending upon the citizens tallied.
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Howdy Suze!
What’s interesting to me about our current political situation is that I think the Republicans think we are now a pseudo-democracy where they’ll win every election due to their voter suppression laws. I’m not sure they’re wrong. I think voter suppression efforts are why Trump won and the Republicans took the House and, maybe, the Senate. If that’s the case and this SAVE Act passes, it just means that voter suppression just became all the more effective and 2026 may be our first genuine pseudo-election.
I hate to be such a pessimist, but it looks that way to me.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The script is excellent. I’m spreading this.
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Thank you, Bob. I really appreciate that.
Jack
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Most Welcome
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So, guess that, it’s, Trump’s plan, to keep all voters of the, “wrong colors” (those of us who aren’t WHITE…), from, voting, and, he apparently forgot, that his own, ANCESTRY would’ve, disqualified him from, taking the, “throne”…Do you NOT see the, ambiguity, the, ironies, in this, way of, thought??? And yet, he still, robbed, democracy, because the voters of, America, gave ultimate POWER to this, MADMAN!
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Howdy Taurus!
As LBJ, if you let white people be as racist and misogynist as they wanna be, they’ll give you their souls, so, yeah they’re making their laws so that they have an effect by skin color. Trump and MAGA are proud of their hypocrisy, so I don’t know that there is much point in pointing it out. Most people are ashamed of lying, however, so I think there is worth by responding with, “You’re lying and you know you’re lying,” without pausing to debunk the lie or get baited into debating the “facts.”
The voter suppression efforts of the GOP over the past twenty years have finally borne some fruit. It should makes us all question weather 2026 elections are even possible to win.
Huzzah!
Jack
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