The SAVE Act passed the House on Feb. 11, 2026 by a vote of 218-213 and is now in the Senate awaiting a vote. Voting is expected to take place next week, according to Thune. If and when it passes the Senate, it will go to the president for a final signature.
Will SAVE Act Prevent Married Women from Registering to Vote?
Posted on February 28, 2025
Q: Is it true that under the SAVE Act married women will not be able to register to vote if their married name doesn’t match their birth certificate?
A: The proposed SAVE Act instructs states to establish a process for people whose legal name doesn’t match their birth certificate to provide additional documents. But voting rights advocates say that married women and others who have changed their names may face difficulty when registering because of the ambiguity in the bill over what documents may be accepted.
And you're missing the point that other people are making: the SSA is not responsible for knowing your citizenship status, and so documents from them don't establish citizenship.
That they know it has nothing to do with anything. They're not an authoritative source, so they can't be used for that purpose.
You're thinking like it's an evidentiary chain. A requires B, therefore proof of A implies B.
It's not though: it's a list of valid documents from a list of valid sources.
And all that's moot because you can get an SSA name change or a real id without meeting the criteria to vote, so even if it was a proof A wouldn't imply B.
The SSA is responsible for knowing your citizenship status. It's something they have to verify before processing the name change.
If the SSA has applied your name change then the name change should be accepted by all federal agencies and you should be able to vote if your legal name doesn't match your birth certificate.
That's not them being authoritative for the information, that's them being a consumer of the information. There's a difference.
A store needs to see my drivers license to sell me alcohol. That doesn't mean that the receipt is proof I'm allowed to drive. If I get pulled over I can't give it to a cop to prove I have a license because the store isn't an authoritative source for that information, despite having an integration with the state I'd verification service.
This is just how paperwork works. You can search for this information yourself if you don't believe me. A social security name change is not proof of citizenship.