Bogdan’s experience in New Hampshire is being used by election-rights advocates as a warning about how quickly federal requirements could become obstacles for voters and for local election offices, the Associated Press reported. Joshua Bogdan, a 31-year-old from Portsmouth, described how the process of casting a ballot became “a nerve-wracking game of beat the clock” after a state “proof-of-citizenship” law took effect for town elections in 2025.
The AP said Bogdan arrived at his voting place and provided his driver’s license, expecting it would be handled as it had been in other towns. Instead, the poll worker told him the new law meant he would need a passport or his birth certificate because he had moved and needed to reregister at his new address, according to the report. Bogdan told the AP he had not realized anything had changed before he went to vote, and he said the instruction to supply documents he did not have on hand was frustrating.
“I didn’t know that anything had officially changed walking in there,” Bogdan said, adding that he was being told he needed a passport he has never had or a birth certificate he keeps “tucked away somewhere safe” in order to cast a ballot. The AP report also described how the requirement turned what he had previously found “fun and invigorating” into a time-pressured scramble at the polling place.
In Washington, the SAVE America Act—described by the AP as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act—cleared the U.S. House last month on a mostly party-line basis, the report said. Republicans have argued that the bill would improve election integrity, and the AP said Trump has characterized its safeguards as “common sense.” The AP added that the bill is scheduled to come up in the U.S. Senate next week for voting and debate.
The AP report said the bill’s photo ID requirement is one provision Republicans have highlighted, but the citizenship documentation requirement for registering to vote in federal elections is likely to have broader impact. The AP said noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections and that no U.S. state allows it, with cases where it occurs described as rare. Still, advocates warn that expanding federal registration rules could affect millions of voters when documentary proof is hard to obtain or requires timely renewals and office processing.
Rebekah Caruthers, president and CEO of the Fair Elections Center, argued that the documentation requirements could undermine democratic access. In an email to the AP, Caruthers said the legislation’s strict requirements could move the U.S. “in the opposite direction” of representative democracy, and she argued it could deny millions of eligible Americans their “fundamental freedom to vote.” She said the effect would include people in communities across demographics, including married women, people of color, and voters who live in rural areas, the AP reported.
The AP described the documentary pathways under the SAVE Act as a long list but one with limits and caveats. It said a REAL ID–compliant driver’s license would need to indicate that the applicant is a citizen, noting that only five states—Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington—offer enhanced REAL IDs explicitly indicating U.S. citizenship. It also said standard driver’s licenses often do not include a citizenship indicator, while some states such as Ohio have added them, and it described further stipulations for military IDs requiring additional documentation that indicates U.S. birthplace.
The AP reported that, for most provisions, the SAVE Act contains no phase-in period that would give voters and local election offices time to adjust. If passed by Congress and signed by Trump, the citizenship-documentation mandate would apply immediately, creating an implementation timeline tied to the next election cycle. The report also cited a 2025 University of Maryland study estimating 21.3 million eligible Americans lack documents or easy access to documents to prove citizenship, including nearly 10% of Democrats, 7% of Republicans, and 14% of unaffiliated voters.
The AP said a passport would most effectively meet the requirement, but it noted that only about half of American adults have a passport and that the SAVE Act requires it to be current—meaning an expired passport would not count. It also described constraints around processing capacity and timing, including that passport processing had layoffs at the State Department that were later reversed, while some public libraries were restricted from processing passports, with other locations such as government libraries, post offices, and county clerks still providing the service. The AP said the State Department’s website describes a typical passport processing time of four to six weeks excluding mailing time, with expedited options that increase cost.
On birth certificates, the AP said a certified birth certificate issued by a state, local government or tribal government would be required under the bill, while certificates signed by doctors in hospital settings would not qualify. It added that processing times can vary and that backlogs have developed in some states due to staffing shortages and “escalating demand for REAL IDs,” citing New York’s stated waiting period of four months for certified copies. The AP further said women who changed their names when they married may need additional documentation if the birth certificate does not match current IDs, and it cited a 2023 Pew Research Center survey finding that about 80% of women in opposite-sex marriages take their husband’s last name.
The AP report also said the SAVE Act would not provide money to help states and local governments implement the changes or to promote them to voters. For Bogdan, that lack of support was part of the problem under New Hampshire’s state law, the report said, describing that people who have voted elsewhere in the state are not required to show proof of citizenship in new towns if poll workers can confirm registration history. Bogdan told the AP that the poll workers at his polling place did not seem to know about that option or to look it up.
“Young voters like myself don’t always carry around our birth certificate, Social Security card, all that important stuff, because it’s not used ever or very often,” Bogdan said, adding that he expects those documentation gaps could hold back “all those young kids who are going to go out and try and vote.” The AP’s reporting suggests the debate over the SAVE Act’s documentation rules will focus not only on the type of proof required, but on whether the federal rollout timeline and administrative capacity can keep election access from becoming conditional on timely paperwork.