WASHINGTON, D.C. – All Voting is Local submitted comments to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission regarding a petition for rulemaking submitted by America First Legal Foundation asking the Commission to amend EAC Regulations and the National Mail Voter Registration Form to require documentary proof of United States citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Read the full comment below:
FOR: Camden Kelliher, General Counsel
Don Palmer, Chairman
U.S. Election Assistance Commission
FROM: All Voting is Local
DATE: October 16, 2025
SUBJECT: Comment for the EAC regarding the Petition of America First Legal Foundation for Rulemaking, Docket EAC-2025-0236
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is soliciting public comment on a petition for
rulemaking submitted by America First Legal Foundation asking the Commission to amend EAC
Regulations and the National Mail Voter Registration Form to require documentary proof of United States citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the petition by America First Legal Foundation. All Voting
is Local (“All Voting”) is a nonpartisan organization that fights on the ground in eight states for free and
fair elections. In a moment of unprecedented threat to our democracy, All Voting advocates state and local officials for policies and practices that ensure the American people choose their leaders, not the other way around. All Voting writes to provide comments on the docket EAC-2025-0236.
All Voting is Local submits this comment in opposition to the petition submitted by America First
Legal Foundation to amend the federal voter registration form to require documents that very few
people have in order to prove their citizenship.
Calls for documentary proof of citizenship are unnecessary and perpetuate lies about immigrants and
voting to sow doubt about our elections as part of a broader strategy to distract us from the real issues
facing our communities. America First Legal’s petition asks the U.S. Election Assistance Commission
(EAC) to impose an illegal and unnecessary voter registration requirement that would effectively block
millions of Americans from voting by imposing severe barriers to registration.
Like the SAVE Act, this petition seeks to erect deliberate and unnecessary barriers to how American
citizens register to vote and update their voter registration information. Even more pressing, millions of
eligible Americans—students, people of color, rural residents, lower-income and working-class
individuals, and married women—will face serious difficulties in obtaining or producing the documents
suggested in the America First Legal Foundation petition. In fact, approximately 146 million Americans
do not have a valid passport, and more than 21.3 million people—about 9.1% of voting-age U.S.
citizens—do not have documents like a birth certificate or passport readily available to prove citizenship.
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Beyond imposing incredible burdens on voters, adding unnecessary documentation requirements to the
federal form would violate federal law. The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) spells out the
requirements for the content of the federal voter registration form, permitting the form to require “only
such identifying information” that is “necessary” to determine eligibility to register. The NVRA requires
attestation under the penalty of perjury that the registrant is a U.S. citizen. It does not require or permit
separate documentation of citizenship. The attestation has been and remains effective and sufficient for ensuring voter eligibility without adding a costly burden on voters.
Summary
Requiring a passport or other documentation that very few American citizens possess on the federal form would not enhance safe and accessible elections for all. Instead, it would block millions of eligible
Americans from registering to vote—including married women, lower-income and working-class citizens, and communities of color—while violating federal law. The petition also ignores the facts: only eligible Americans vote, and the lies spread about immigrants and voting are a manufactured problem to purposefully disenfranchise voters and sow distrust in our elections. All Voting is Local respectfully urges the Commission to protect eligible Americans’ right to vote and to reject the America First Legal petition.
Sincerely,
All Voting is Local