Political leaders are taking steps to gut nonpartisan voter registration programs and put the federal government in control of voter eligibility. These changes threaten the ability of nonprofits to provide critical support to underrepresented groups so they can exercise their right to vote. For millions of Americans, this could mean being left out of the democratic process, with no voice in elections that shape their lives.
Tom Lopach, president and CEO of the Voter Participation Center, a nonprofit focused on registering people of color, unmarried women, and young voters—three groups that make up what the organization calls the New American Majority—described the severity of the situation to NPQ: “We’ve seen an unprecedented effort to reduce access to voting on so many levels.” He noted that executive orders, federal and state legislation, court rulings, and policy and staffing changes across government agencies form “a multi-pronged attack on voting.”
Many of these measures trace back to President Donald Trump’s March 25 executive order that attempts to reshape how federal agencies and election officials run voter registration and elections. While critics called the order unlawful and unconstitutional, and parts have been stopped by the courts, other elements are moving forward.
Policies are now in force that prohibit nonprofits from registering new citizens to vote at naturalization ceremonies, curb college voter programs, and expose voter data to misuse. On top of that, a proposed bill—the SAVE Act—could impose additional burdens on voters that could effectively end nonprofit voter registration programs.
“We’ve seen an unprecedented effort to reduce access to voting on so many levels.”
New Policies Block Nonpartisan Voter Registration
At the end of August, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a policy that bans organizations from helping new citizens register to vote at the end of naturalization ceremonies. Nonprofits have historically filled in at these events when local election officials were underresourced or unavailable. Under the policy, only state and local election officials or USCIS staff may provide voter registration and education, a move advocates say will suppress voter turnout in immigrant communities.
The League of Women Voters, a nonprofit that has registered voters for over a century, condemned the policy as an “attempt to keep new citizens from accessing their full rights” and an “attack on the immigrant community.” It emphasized its volunteers have stepped in when government resources fall short, “making sure critical voter registration services reach those who need them most.”
Voto Latino, a civic engagement nonprofit, also criticized the change, calling it “a calculated effort by the Trump Administration to advance voter suppression,” noting that more than 24 million naturalized citizens are eligible to vote. Stripping away on-the-spot registration, the group warned, “is not about protecting democracy, it is about controlling who gets to participate in it.”
The same month, the Department of Education shuttered a newer resource for boosting youth voting by barring colleges from using Federal Work Study funds to pay students for jobs in voter registration, at polling places, or on election hotlines, even when the work is nonpartisan. This reverses 2022 and 2024 guidance that allowed these work study roles as a way to close gaps in youth turnout in elections.
Stripping away on-the-spot registration, [Voto Latino] warned, “is not about protecting democracy, it is about controlling who gets to participate in it.”
Research shows that a third of young people skipped the November 2024 election because they either lacked information, had problems voting, or simply forgot—barriers that more voter outreach could have fixed. Cutting work study funding for get-out-the-vote jobs withholds a resource that could give young voters a louder voice in elections.
Announcing the change, Education Secretary Linda McMahon tweeted, “Federal Work Study programs are done funding political activism on college campuses!”—framing nonpartisan youth participation in democracy as undeserving of government support.
Federal Demands for Private Voter Information
The Trump administration is also pushing for sweeping access to sensitive voter data from every state, raising alarms and potentially violating the law. Claiming access to the data is needed to enforce federal election protections, the Department of Justice has demanded that nearly two dozen states hand over what the Brennan Center for Justice calls “troves of confidential voter information,” including dates of birth, driver’s license details, and partial Social Security numbers. Some states complied quickly, while others are fighting to protect voter privacy and defend state control over elections. The DOJ plans to make the same demand of all 50 states.
Meanwhile, despite evidence that noncitizen voting is virtually nonexistent, the Department of Homeland Security is pressuring states to hand over voter rolls so they can be scanned for noncitizens. DHS recently repurposed its SAVE citizenship system (no relation to the SAVE Act), originally made to check an individual’s eligibility for government benefits, so it can run bulk searches of voter registrations for noncitizens.
Experts warn the SAVE system lacks adequate legal and privacy safeguards and is prone to errors that could disenfranchise citizens, make people’s private details vulnerable to political misuse, and fuel lies about noncitizen voting and election results. A few states have already started using the SAVE system to remove voters from their rolls, and the administration has said that states that refuse to comply with DHS’s requirements will lose federal grants for election security.
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Reuters reported on September 9 that the DOJ and DHS are in talks to use the voter information the agencies are compiling for criminal and immigration-related investigations, a move that could put voters at risk of being targeted for their identity and political affiliation.
Nonprofits and Voters Targeted by the SAVE Act
The SAVE Act, passed by the House in April and awaiting a Senate vote, is being sold as protection against noncitizen voting. Critics say the goal is really voter suppression.
If enacted, the SAVE Act would force states to require people to prove their citizenship in person to register to vote or update their registration. For most people, that will mean providing a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization papers, since other government-issued documents, including driver’s licenses, REAL IDs, and military or tribal IDs, wouldn’t count. Election officials would be required to check every voter against federal records, including DHS’s error-prone citizenship system.
A Brennan Center study estimates that over 9 percent of American citizens of voting age lack easy access to the necessary documents, with the rate nearly 11 percent for people of color. Tens of millions more could be kept from voting if their old paperwork doesn’t match their legal name, which is common for married women and transgender people.
The Center for American Progress warns that the SAVE Act would “upend online voter registration, make it impossible to mail in a registration application, and eliminate voter registration drives.”
If enacted, the SAVE Act would force states to require people to prove their citizenship in person to register to vote or update their registration.
Nonprofit VOTE, which helps nonprofits integrate voter engagement into their services, is urging people to take action to oppose the SAVE Act. The organization put the consequences in stark relief: “Millions would simply not register.”
Nonprofits Should Step into Voter Registration
American democracy has endured voter suppression tactics before. However, as Lopach points out, this new assault, rather than overtly excluding specific groups, uses executive power to make voting more complicated and burdensome for ordinary people to achieve essentially the same outcome.
“Many of these things are done to create an atmosphere of fear, of confusion, of misunderstanding, and to keep people away from voting again,” he said, noting that the confusion isn’t accidental but rather part of a deliberate strategy to make people question whether they can or should cast a ballot.
“The people who will be most capable of voting are going to be the wealthy and privileged…who will benefit from a government that only focuses on them voting—and not underrepresented communities,” he added.
Despite these attacks, Lopach urges nonprofits not to back down from encouraging people to become voters. “When nonprofits think about the communities they serve, most nonprofit leaders know that…policy solutions determined by our elected officials are deeply intertwined with the work the nonprofits do,” he said.
Even if an organization can’t run voter registration drives, he said that it can still help people navigate the essentials, such as how to register, vote by mail, vote early, or cast a ballot on Election Day: “It’s important to make voting as accessible as possible.”
Disclosure: Lauren Girardin is a member of the League of Women Voters. Her affiliation is noted for transparency. This article is not a statement by the League, which was not interviewed for the piece.
