SAVE Act Stalls as Courts Reject Voter Roll Demands and DHS Threatens Election Officials

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As President Trump escalates his campaign to nationalize elections, his legislative agenda is colliding with political reality. The SAVE America Act — his signature election security bill — faces an uncertain path forward as House GOP leaders push a “clean” government funding bill without it, while federal courts have unanimously rejected the administration’s demands for state voter roll data. Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is threatening states with funding cuts and prosecution over unverified claims of noncitizen voting.

SAVE Act Faces Uncertain Future as GOP Leaders Move to Bypass It

President Trump’s primetime address on Thursday night was intended to pressure Congress into passing the SAVE America Act — his comprehensive election security bill requiring photo identification and proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. But within hours of the speech, House GOP leaders announced they would put a “clean” continuing resolution on the floor next week — a move that inherently means leaving out Trump’s elections bill.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s strategy would fund the government well ahead of the normal Sept. 30 deadline, potentially avoiding a shutdown fight far in advance of the midterms. According to three people granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, Johnson has also been privately trying to convince Trump to endorse the plan in hopes of avoiding a shutdown fight that could harm Republicans at the polls.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise framed it as a practical necessity: “Let’s see who actually does want to shut the government down and inflict pain on the American people, which would be a bad thing.”

But the decision has put Republicans in a difficult position. If Trump pressures them to attach the SAVE Act to the funding bill, they would immediately peel off needed Democratic votes and lose their moral high ground. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was already warning Republicans Thursday against “a my-way-or-the-highway approach” to government funding this fall.

The Reconciliation Path

Republicans could potentially save face with Trump if they are able to make progress toward passing a watered-down version of the elections measure as part of a filibuster-skirting reconciliation bill. House Budget Republicans approved a fiscal blueprint Thursday afternoon that would include up to $10 billion for election matters — like incentivizing states to implement stricter voter-ID laws, a central fixture of the SAVE Act. House GOP leaders are trying to put that budget resolution on the floor next week, too.

But it won’t be easy. Senate Majority Leader John Thune provided Johnson with another cold reality check Thursday. After learning the speaker was telling reporters the Senate would adopt the House’s budget framework before August recess, Thune responded, “That’d be news to me.”

Courts Reject DOJ Demands 0-16

While the legislative battle continues, the administration’s legal campaign to obtain state voter rolls has suffered a series of unanimous defeats.

The Justice Department has lost all 16 federal court decisions issued so far over its demands for voter lists containing personal information such as addresses, dates of birth, and driver’s license and Social Security numbers — data local officials contend would create a “sweeping surveillance tool.”

What makes this remarkable:

Bipartisan opposition: GOP officials in states including Idaho, Kentucky, Utah and West Virginia also fought the requests. Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane told federal officials to “stop threatening your friends in Idaho.”
Trump-appointed judges rule against him: Fifteen U.S. District Court judges — nine appointed by Republicans, including seven appointed by Trump — have rejected the department’s demands as unlawful.
Unanimous legal reasoning: Judges have ruled unanimously that states run elections, not the federal government.

U.S. District Judge David Carter in Los Angeles was among the earliest to reject the administration’s demands, ruling on January 15: “The government’s request is unprecedented and illegal. It is not for the Executive, or even this Court to authorize the use of civil rights legislation as a tool to forsake the privacy rights of millions of Americans. That power belongs solely to Congress.”

Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School and a former DOJ official in the Obama and Biden administrations, put it bluntly: “The Department of Justice has no power — none — to purge the voter rolls. The courts aren’t buying what the Department of Justice is selling.”

Former DOJ attorney David Becker called the losing streak remarkable: “As a former DOJ attorney, the idea of going 0-15 in cases — you can’t even wrap your head around it.”

Mullin Threatens Funding and Prosecution

Despite the courts’ unanimous rejection, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin escalated the pressure on Friday, threatening to strip states of federal election-related aid if they don’t comply with the administration’s voting roll probe.

Mullin told reporters that states seeking reimbursement for conducting federal elections would be required to secure voting systems and “scrub” their voter rolls: “We’re saying that the machines had to be secured, and that your voter restoration list needs to be scrubbed.”

Specific threats:

States could lose federal election reimbursement funding
Election officials could face fines, penalties, or prison time
Illegal voting carries penalties up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines

“If the election officials, once we gave them the information that they need to secure their elections and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said.

But election experts say the threat has little teeth. David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, called it “a laughable threat.” He noted that the federal government provided just $55 million in Help America Vote Act grants for fiscal 2025 — split among all 50 states, five territories and D.C. — compared to the $6 billion state and local governments spend to administer elections.

“There is no significant pool of federal grant money appropriated, so this threat has no teeth for any state. None of them are expecting any significant federal funds for elections.”

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said most federal election-related grants go to local law enforcement, not to election administration at the state or local level. It is not money states rely on, she said.

The Numbers Behind the Claims

Mullin advanced a claim Trump made Thursday that DHS had found 250,000 to 278,000 noncitizen voters on the rolls in California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

But the numbers are not what they appear. Letters from DHS to the states are more hedged — Pennsylvania’s letter, for example, notes the figure is unverified, saying there “may be as many as 14,576 non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls,” but that only 8,594 came up as matches as non-citizens in DHS files.

The citizenship data system DHS is using — SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) — has a reputation for presenting an inflated picture. DHS explicitly requires states that use the program voluntarily for voter list maintenance to conduct further investigations of its matches.

Mullin also claimed DHS identified 400,000 deceased people who remained registered. He did not say how many of the noncitizens or deceased registrants had actually cast ballots.

A Reuters analysis of federal court data undercuts Trump’s assertions — federal prosecutors have charged just 129 people under a federal “voting by aliens” statute since 1996. More than two-thirds of those prosecutions — 86 — have been filed during Trump’s five-and-a-half years in office. In none of the cases did prosecutors allege a coordinated effort to influence an election.

Among the 73 people convicted or who pleaded guilty, 40 believed they had a legal right to vote, according to court records and interviews. Thirty-two of those said they had been signed up to vote by mistake, encouraged to register, or reassured by election officials that they were eligible.

States Already Police Their Own Rolls

States documented how much they already police their voter rolls — and how small the problem of noncitizen voting is.

In Utah, a yearlong audit of voter registration released in May found 27 noncitizens who were removed from voter rolls out of more than 2 million voters. Eight noncitizens voted in the 2020 election and four each in 2018 and 2024.

In Idaho, state officials worked with federal authorities to verify the citizenship of 1.1 million registered voters before the 2024 election. State officials referred 34 people for criminal investigation of noncitizen registration or voting — but none had voted in the primary or general elections that year.

Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry, a Republican, announced in September that checking state voter lists dating to the 1980s against DHS’s SAVE database revealed 390 noncitizens who registered to vote and 79 who cast a ballot in at least one election. But she was clear: “I want to be clear: noncitizens illegally registering or voting is not a systemic problem in Louisiana.”

The Bigger Picture: A Coordinated Assault on Democracy

The combination of developments this week reveals a coordinated assault on the foundations of American democracy:

Courts have unanimously rejected the administration’s voter roll demands — including judges appointed by Trump himself — ruling that the federal government has no authority to demand states’ sensitive voter data.
The administration is escalating threats to withhold funding and prosecute state officials who refuse to comply with demands the courts have ruled illegal.
The EAC remains gutted — no commissioners to certify voting systems or provide oversight, just months before the midterms.
Trump is using a primetime address to spread false claims about election integrity, claiming 278,000 noncitizens are registered to vote without evidence that any actually voted.
The administration is seeking to nationalize elections through funding threats and legal pressure, despite the Constitution’s explicit grant of election administration authority to states.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has called the SAVE database expansion part of Trump’s “most sinister strategies for subverting our elections” — describing it as “sci-fi voter suppression – authoritarianism by algorithm.”

The Bottom Line

The SAVE America Act faces an uncertain future as GOP leaders move a “clean” funding bill without it — and a reconciliation path remains complicated. Meanwhile, federal courts have unanimously rejected the Trump administration’s demands for state voter roll data — with rulings from seven Trump-appointed judges among those finding the requests unlawful. DHS Secretary Mullin is threatening to withhold funding and prosecute state officials who refuse to comply with demands the courts have ruled illegal.

This is a coordinated assault on the foundations of our democracy. The people must pay attention. The people must speak out. And the people must vote.

What You Can Do Right Now

Check Your Voter Registration. Visit your state’s election website or Vote.org to confirm your registration and update your address. Make sure you’re ready to vote in November.

Contact Your State Election Officials. Let them know you support free, fair, and accessible elections and oppose federal overreach.

Speak Out. Contact your members of Congress. Tell them you oppose the SAVE America Act and the administration’s threats to withhold election funding. Demand they protect the integrity of the 2026 midterms.

Talk to Your Neighbors. Many people don’t know about the unanimous court rulings rejecting the administration’s demands or the small scale of noncitizen voting. Spread the word.

Support our Efforts. Support Democrats at every level who will defend the right to vote and protect our democratic institutions. Join the effort for a better America by volunteering and chipping in what you can at Fightforthepeoplepac.com and Democrats.org. Be the voice.

Sources

Politico: “Capitol agenda: Trump leans in on his SAVE America pitch” (July 16, 2026)
USA Today / Kansas City Star: “Feds threaten state election officials with funding cuts, prosecution” (July 17, 2026)
USA Today / The Herald: “Trump’s effort to get state voter rolls hits a brick wall in courts” (July 18, 2026)
Reuters: “Trump claims voting by noncitizens is rampant in America. The numbers tell another story” (July 19, 2026)
Senate Democratic Leadership: “Roundup: Trump Has Been Actively Undermining American Elections For Months” (July 15, 2026)
CNN: “Trump DHS using unverified figures to attack election officials on non-citizen voting” (July 17, 2026)
The Business Standard / Reuters: “Trump claims voting by noncitizens is rampant in America. The numbers tell another story” (July 19, 2026)
Senate Democratic Leadership: “Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Federal Court Blocking Donald Trump’s Sinister Voter Database Purge” (June 22, 2026)
Telangana Today / IANS: “Trump administration warns states over election funding and security” (July 18, 2026)

Written and composed using AI.