A slate of bills moving through the Iowa Legislature would require using a federal database to check someone’s citizenship when they register to vote or apply for a driver’s license, a job or public assistance.
The program, Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE), originally was built to check whether someone qualifies for benefits programs such as food assistance or Medicaid.
But since retaking office, President Donald Trump has expanded the program to allow it to check against Americans’ Social Security numbers as he seeks to build a nationwide citizenship verification program.
Trump also insisted in a recent Truth Social post “there will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!”
The Iowa legislation on voter registration comes after Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, began using SAVE last year to check voters’ citizenship status after settling a lawsuit against the federal government seeking access to the program.
The bills on employment verification follow the immigration arrest of former Des Moines Public Schools superintendent Ian Roberts last fall.
Bill requires election officials to check voter citizenship against SAVE database
Senate File 2203 would require the Iowa Secretary of State’s office to verify voters’ citizenship using SAVE, which allows them to check someone’s immigration status against other federal databases.
The Secretary of State’s Office would then be required to inform county auditors if registered voters in their counties were flagged as ineligible by the database, and the auditor would be required to designate that voter’s registration as “unconfirmed” unless they provide proof of citizenship.
The Secretary of State’s Office would be required to verify the citizenship status of newly registered voters monthly and of all registered voters annually.
Sen. Ken Rozenboom, R-Pella, said the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service said SAVE has a 99% accuracy rating.
“As of 2025, SAVE has been linked with the Social Security Administration data and the State Department U.S. passport database, offering additional resources and lookup tools for immigration verification,” Rozenboom said. “It is a tool to use to help us clean up voter registration data.”
Sen. Cindy Winckler, D-Davenport, said election officials already check voters’ eligibility when they register to vote. She raised concerns that SAVE could turn up inaccurate results and wrongly flag citizens as ineligible to vote.
“We want eligible individuals to vote,” she said. “But we do not want to misclassify or disenfranchise an individual and keep them from voting.”
In Texas, which uses the program, some U.S. citizens have been wrongly flagged as ineligible to vote.
Pate caused controversy when, weeks before the 2024 election, he instructed county auditors to challenge the ballots of nearly 2,200 registered voters in Iowa, alleging that they were potentially noncitizens.
Pate’s list at the time came from Department of Transportation data that was often out of date. Civil rights groups sued, and hundreds of people were able to prove their citizenship and vote.
After gaining access to the SAVE program after the election, Pate said his office found 277 noncitizens who were registered to vote in Iowa, including 35 who voted in 2024 and five more who tried to vote but had their ballots rejected. He said he referred the names of all 277 people to law enforcement for potential prosecution.
Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West De Moines, recalled trying to help her constituents prove their citizenship after being wrongly flagged by Pate’s list in 2024.
“I care about election integrity, and I’ve had to fight for my constituents’ constitutional rights as citizens to have their votes counted,” she said. “This bill is not a fix. This bill does not enhance election integrity. This bill is going to send us down the road of more bad data that’s going to make things worse.”
Senators voted 34-13 to pass the bill, sending it to the Iowa House for consideration.
SAVE program would be used to check applicants for driver’s licenses
Another bill, Senate File 2187, would require the Iowa Department of Transportation to use the SAVE system to verify someone’s citizenship or immigration status when they apply for a driver’s license or nonoperator ID.
Senators voted 42-5 to pass the legislation, sending it to the House.
After Ian Roberts’ arrest, bill requires SAVE, E-Verify for professional license holders
State agencies, the Iowa Legislature, cities, counties and school boards would be required to use SAVE and the federal E-Verify program to confirm that new employees are legally eligible to work in the country, under legislation that passed the Senate.
Senators voted 47-0 to pass Senate File 2412, sending it to the House.
The language is similar to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal, which also requires using SAVE and E-Verify and would codify an executive order Reynolds issued last fall after Roberts’ arrest.
A separate bill, Senate File 2218, requires the Board of Educational Examiners to require those applying for an initial educator’s license or a renewed license to produce evidence of legal authorization to work in the United States. The bill passed 47-0.
Senate bill requires SAVE to be used to check public assistance eligibility
Senators also passed a wide-ranging bill related to public assistance eligibility which aligns some of Iowa’s rules with federal changes passed in Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
That includes using SAVE to check eligibility for public assistance programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Senators voted 30-17 to pass the bill, Senate File 2422.
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa bills expand use of SAVE program to check citizenship for voters
Reporting by Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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