A Hawaiʻi congressman was one of four Democrats to cross party lines Thursday and vote with Republicans to pass a controversial measure that would require people to show proof of citizenship before they could register to vote.

U.S. Rep. Ed Case, a moderate Hawaiʻi Democrat, said in an email that people who aren’t citizens shouldn’t vote and the legislation helps ensure that. He thinks concerns that it will lead to significant voter suppression are overblown.

The vote to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, was 220-208.

Case’s decision to vote in favor of a measure that was strongly denounced by Democrats — even Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez has already joined a lawsuit opposing a similar Trump administration executive order — angered Democrats, including in Hawaiʻi.

Lisa Gibson, the group leader for the progressive pro-democracy organization Indivisible Hawaiʻi, said she’s been getting calls and emails all day from her members.

“People are furious,” she said. “This vote is embarrassing for the state of Hawaiʻi. It’s going to harm people. So we are going to have to work hard to kill this in the Senate, if that’s possible.”

Indivisible Hawaiʻi is leading a campaign to have people contact Case’s office via email or telephone to, as an email pitch said Thursday, “give him a piece of your mind!”

Nestor Garcia, Case’s spokesperson, confirmed that the congressman has indeed been getting lots of complaints to his office.

Garcia said the congressman was traveling and could not be reached to talk about his vote.

But in an emailed statement, Case said, “Noncitizen voting is illegal, and we should all know that noncitizens are not voting. The SAVE Act provides consistent national standards for what documentation is necessary to prove citizenship and the right to vote.”

“It includes various acceptable forms of identification which most voter-eligible citizens should have and those who don’t should be able to obtain,” he said. “Fears of voter suppression because of these standards are overstated and should not prevent reasonable citizen ID requirements, and voter suppression is in any event illegal.”

Election officials in Hawaiʻi also haven’t raised much alarm over the legislation or the Trump administration’s election-related order.

Scott Nago, chief elections officer for the state of Hawaiʻi, said he did not think the act would apply to people already registered who do not plan any changes.

Hawaiʻi’s four county clerks handle voter registration. Honolulu Elections Administrator Rex Quidilla declined to comment.

If passed by the GOP-controlled Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump, proof of citizenship would be required in order to register to vote or when updating voter registration. The concern is that that will lead to the disenfranchisement of millions of voters.

Hawaiʻi’s other Democratic Rep. Jill Tokuda, who represents Hawaiʻi’s 2nd Congressional District, voted against the SAVE Act.

The legislation would make it so that having a driver’s license “isn’t enough to vote,” the congresswoman posted on X. “You’d need a birth certificate with your current legal name, or a passport.”

Tokuda said in her tweet that that would be a problem, as 70 million women who married and changed their name would not be able to vote and that 48% of Americans lack passports.

“That’s voter suppression,” she said. “I voted no.”

Case’s vote for the SAVE Act also goes against the official position of the state of Hawaiʻi.

Lopez joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general last week suing Trump, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the federal Election Assistance Commission and other administration officials over an executive order that Lopez said aims to impose “sweeping voting restrictions” across the country.

In addition to requiring proof of citizenship when Americans register to vote, the order also “seeks to upend well-established state procedures for counting ballots,” according to a press release from the AG’s office.

The order, Lopez said, intrudes on the power of Congress and the states over elections.

“This unlawful effort to usurp election authority will irreparably harm the states and interfere with the lawful exercise of the right to vote.”

‘A Terrible Step Back’

Federal law already states that it is illegal for non-U.S. citizens to register to vote or cast a ballot in federal elections.

According to the Brennan Center, about 146 million people do not have a passport and 13 million U.S. citizens do not have ready access to citizenship documents.

The SAVE Act was introduced by Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas. The legislation would amend the National Voter Registration Act so that people registering to vote or updating their registration would need to show proof of citizenship.

Roy is a stronger supporter of Trump, who falsely claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and included votes from noncitizens. Roy argues that the SAVE Act is necessary “because of the Biden administration’s immigration policies and noncitizens have been found on voter rolls,” according to The Texas Tribune, even though “there is no evidence to suggest that significant levels of non-citizens vote.”

Mark my words: This will not pass the Senate. https://t.co/Yfh4MXrVa5

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 10, 2025

The Center for American Progress, which has a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues, said in a report released in January that the act would “upend the way every American citizen registers to vote.”

“Driver’s licenses — including REAL IDs — as well military or tribal IDs would not be sufficient forms of documentation to prove citizenship under the legislation,” the center reported.

It’s not the first time Case, who represents Hawaiʻi’s 1st Congressional District, has surprised Democrats by going against the party line. In March he was one of 10 House Democrats to vote with Republicans to censure Rep. Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, for his disruptive behavior during Trump’s address to Congress. Green was escorted out by the House sergeant at arms at the request of Speaker Mike Johnson.

Still, Janet Mason of the League of Women Voters of Hawaiʻi, said she was shocked and very disappointed in Case’s vote on the SAVE Act.

“It’s not going to be easy to reverse this change if it becomes law, but the Democrats did not have to make it easier for the Republicans to do this,” she said. “It’s going to be a terrible step back from modern voting because we won’t be able to use automatic voter registration, we won’t be able to use online voting registration, and people will have to jump through hoops to provide evidence of their citizenship.”