Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer fact-checks the effects of the America Rescue Act

This article originally appeared on PolitiFact

Democrats are fighting hard against the Republican-backed American Voter Eligibility Protection Act, or Save America Act, saying it will create roadblocks for Americans seeking to register to vote or cast ballots.

When the Senate began several days of debate on the bill on March 17, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., emphasized the problems he said the legislation would cause.

He told reporters that the law “will force Americans to register (to vote) only in person, something only 5% of Americans do today.”

He watches: How Trump’s Save America Act will reshape voting and why critics are concerned

Schumer is right that the law requires documentary proof of citizenship to be presented in person to register to vote. But he is wrong about the percentage of Americans who register to vote in person, according to federal data. Federal polls show it’s even higher.

With the strong support of President Donald Trump, the House of Representatives passed the Save America Act in February after years of lies and exaggerations about noncitizen voting, something that rarely happens.

What does the bill say about in-person voter registration?

The bill states that a person seeking to register to vote “shall not register to vote in an election for federal office unless the applicant submits documentary proof of United States citizenship in person to the office of the appropriate election official” by the registration deadline.

The requirement would apply not only to new registrants and those registering in a new state, but also to many people who don’t consider themselves new registrants, said Eliza Swearen-Baker, deputy director of the Voting Rights and Elections Program at the liberal Brennan Center for Justice.

Read more: What to know about how the Save America Act could change voting

For example, depending on how the state interprets the bill’s language, moving to a new county within the state or to a new voting district could be considered new voter registration and trigger citizenship proof requirements.

Swearen-Baker said states’ decisions on how to classify residential moves will affect whether documentation is needed.

She added that the law is also vague about who qualifies as an “elections official.” Does this mean only election workers? Or would an employee at the car dealership — where many voting registrations take place — be eligible?

How many Americans are currently registered to vote in person?

Data from the Federal Election Assistance Commission shows the percentage of voters who registered in person is much higher than Schumer’s number.

A spokesman for Schumer told PolitiFact that the senator pointed to a report by the liberal Center for American Progress that used data from a 2022 poll conducted by the Election Assistance Commission. The report said that 5.9% of voters registered in person at election offices.

But the data Schumer cited, which is not the most recent available, excludes in-person registration at other government offices and at polling places.

Read more: Why voting rights groups warn the SAVE Act could make it harder for married women to vote

Every two years, the Election Assistance Commission compiles an election administration and voting survey. The latest release reflects data for the 2024 election cycle, including the methods Americans used to register to vote during the two years leading up to the 2024 election.

The survey tracked at least six ways voters could have registered in person: at election offices (6%); In polling stations and voting sites (2.2%); In public assistance offices (1%); In disability services offices (0.1%); In recruitment offices in the armed forces (0.1%); And in other public facilities such as libraries (1.8%).

Combined, this amounts to 11.2%.

“Clearly more than 5% or 6% who go to election offices are registering in person,” said Matthew Weil, vice president for governance at the Center for Bipartisan Policy, a think tank.

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A larger share of voter registrations — 30.7% — came from car dealerships. Federal law allows voters to register to vote when they obtain driver’s licenses or perform other automobile-related tasks. (For another 8.7% of voters, the method of registration was not recorded.)

Because some states allow online voter registration through motor vehicle agencies, and states’ policies vary on voter registration at those agencies, it is unclear what proportion of the 30.7% occurs in person versus online. A spokesperson for the Election Assistance Commission told PolitiFact that the data does not determine that.

But voting administration experts said it is very likely that many of these registrations will require an in-person visit.

So the percentage of in-person voter registrations before the 2024 election was between 11% (if all car dealership registrations were online, which is unlikely) and 42% (if every car dealership interaction was in-person).

He watches: Tamara Keith and Amy Walter talk about the impact of Trump’s SAVES Act campaign

The survey listed four categories that do not require in-person registration, and together they represent nearly half of all voter registrations ahead of the 2024 election. Automatic voter registration — an option in some states where voters are automatically registered unless they choose to opt out — represents 25.2%. The percentage of online registration was 13.9%; Mail, email, and fax registrations accounted for 8.3%; Voter registration drives accounted for 2%.

“A large percentage of Americans register online and by mail, and share their driver’s license information to verify identity or show identification when voting,” said Lisa Bryant, a political scientist at California State University-Fresno. “These convenient options will very likely disappear if conservation passes.”

Our rule

Schumer said the Save America Act “would force Americans to only register in person, something only 5% of Americans do today.”

The bill under consideration in the Senate would require documentary proof of citizenship to be presented in person to register to vote.

However, Schumer significantly understated the percentage of people who registered in person; Before the 2024 election, the figure was between 11% and 42%, depending on the number of registrations resulting from in-person visits to car dealerships, a data point that is not collected.

The statement is partly accurate but leaves out important details, so we rate it as half true.

Senior correspondent Amy Sherman contributed to this article.

Clarification, March 20, 2026: The story has been updated to more accurately characterize the 2022 data referred to by Schumer.