Nicole Russell Discovers 'Bipartisan Support' Means 4 Democrats and 208 Nays, Math Teachers Weep

USA Today Opinion: Where 'Some Bipartisan Support' Is Editorial Code for 'We Did Not Check the Vote Count'

On March 12, the everyone-gets-a-trophy equivalent of an opinion writer Nicole Russell wants you to believe the SAVE Act is a simple, common-sense measure that both parties support. She is wrong on both counts, and the receipts prove it.

Let us start with the basic facts that Russell glosses over. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or H.R. 22, passed the House on April 10, 2025. The vote was 220 to 208. Here is what Russell will not tell you: only four Democrats voted for it. Four. Two hundred and eight Democrats voted against it. That is not bipartisan support. That is a party-line vote with a handful of exceptions. When Russell claims that “Americans in both parties overwhelmingly support” this legislation and that “both parties are to blame” for its failure to pass the Senate, she is either ignorant of the actual vote or hoping you are.

The “Documentary Proof” Trap Russell Does Not Want You to Understand

The text of the bill itself, available on Congress.gov, tells the real story. The SAVE Act does not simply require voter identification. It demands “documentary proof of U.S. citizenship” for federal voter registration. Acceptable documents include a passport or birth certificate. A driver’s license is not enough unless it is REAL ID compliant and specifically indicates citizenship status. Most states do not issue REAL ID compliant licenses that denote citizenship. This means millions of American citizens who have been voting for decades would suddenly need to produce documents they may not have readily available.

Russell dismisses concerns that this would make voting difficult for married women who changed their names, calling these worries “overblown.” She offers no evidence for this claim, probably because the evidence runs the other way. According to the U.S. Department of State, only about 48 percent of Americans have valid passports. That means over half of American citizens would need to locate and present birth certificates to register to vote. For married women whose names changed, this means presenting both a birth certificate and marriage documentation to prove identity. Russell thinks this is “overblown.” I think she has never had to help a working mother track down documents from another state while juggling childcare and a full-time job.

A Solution in Search of a Problem (Because the Real Problem Is Too Many People Voting)

The purpose of this bill has nothing to do with election integrity. Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already a federal crime punishable by prison time and deportation. It is also extraordinarily rare. The Heritage Foundation maintains a database of voter fraud cases, and after decades of searching, they have identified a tiny handful of noncitizen voting cases nationwide. You are more likely to be struck by lightning than to encounter a noncitizen voting in a federal election.

What the SAVE Act actually does is erect barriers to voting for American citizens who lack the specific documents the bill requires. It disproportionately affects naturalized citizens, married women, the elderly who may have lost original documents, and low-income Americans who cannot easily afford the time or money to obtain replacement certificates. It creates criminal penalties and allows private lawsuits against election officials who register voters without this specific paperwork.

Polling 101: How to Lie With Statistics (Russell’s Favorite Trick)

Russell cites a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll claiming 71 percent support for the SAVE Act. She fails to mention that this polling language likely described the bill in vague terms about showing ID to vote, not the actual requirements for documentary proof of citizenship. When Americans learn what the bill actually does, support drops significantly. Russell also cites an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll claiming declining confidence in elections. She fails to note that this decline is largely driven by Republican voters who have been fed a steady diet of lies about nonexistent voter fraud since 2020.

Russell’s call to “vote them out” if Congress does not pass the SAVE Act is particularly rich given her misrepresentation of who actually supports the bill. Senate Republicans are not refusing to bring this to a vote because they fear Democratic opposition. They are refusing because they know the bill is radioactive. They watched what happened in the House: 208 Democrats voted no. That is not a both-sides problem. That is one party attempting to suppress voter registration while pretending to care about election security.

”Other Countries Do It” and Other Weak Arguments That Fall Apart

Russell claims that “voter ID standards aren’t even controversial in other countries.” This is a red herring. Most democracies that require ID do not demand documentary proof of citizenship for registration. They accept a range of documents, including utility bills and sworn affidavits. The SAVE Act is far more restrictive than standard practice in comparable democracies.

The bill also requires states to establish programs to identify noncitizens using specific federal databases and to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. This sounds reasonable until you realize that these databases are not designed for this purpose and contain significant errors. The same databases used for immigration enforcement are not voter verification tools. Using them as such will inevitably result in eligible American citizens being flagged for removal, particularly naturalized citizens whose records may not be fully updated across all federal systems.

The Bottom Line: When Someone Says “Both Parties,” Check the Vote Count

Nicole Russell is selling a solution to a problem that does not exist, using poll numbers that misrepresent what the bill actually does, while ignoring the reality that 208 Democrats voted against it in the House. This is not bipartisan legislation. This is a voter suppression bill dressed up in patriotic language, designed to make it harder for American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote. When someone tells you that both parties support something, check the vote count. The receipts show exactly who stands where. And in this case, they show that the SAVE Act is a partisan effort to restrict voting rights, plain and simple.

Works Cited

Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. (2025, April 10). Roll Call 102: H.R. 22, SAVE Act. https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025102

Library of Congress. (2025). H.R. 22 - SAVE Act, 119th Congress. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/22

Russell, N. (2026, March 12). If Congress doesn’t pass the SAVE Act, vote them out. *USA Today*. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/03/12/trump-republicans-pass-save-america-act/89082804007/

U.S. Department of State. (2024). Passport statistics. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics.html