Full participatory democracy took a direct hit in Tuesday’s general election in the Mahoning Valley when an embarrassingly scant number of eligible voters mustered up the time and the responsibility to cast ballots for critically important local races and tax issues.

In Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, fewer than 3 in 10 residents eligible to vote did so.

Whether that shameful ratio results from apathy, feelings that individual votes won’t matter much in the final results or difficulties in finding a ride to a polling place, clearly efforts must be made to increase voter participation in local elections. Conversely, efforts to make voting more difficult and less inclusive must be halted.

That’s why the brakes must be slammed on dangerous and anti-democratic legislation that narrowly won approval this spring in the U.S. House of Representatives and is pending a vote in the U.S. Senate.

The proposed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, would require individuals to present documentary proof of U.S. citizenship via a passport or official birth certificate in person at an elections office when registering to vote or updating their voter registration for federal elections. In practice, it has potential to disenfranchise millions of voters while placing unnecessary and costly burdens on states’ election operations. As a result, SAVE should summarily get tossed aside into the trash heap.

To be fair, the intent of SAVE is noble: to ensure that only U.S. citizens are registered to vote to combat potential fraud and irregularities in elections. The reality, however, is that Ohio, like most other states, already has sufficient protocols in place to ensure free, fair and unfettered elections.

Two years ago, Ohio enacted a series of safeguards to ensure only state residents and U.S. citizens could vote in local, state and federal elections. Among them are mandatory presentation of a valid Ohio driver’s license, state ID card or Social Security card. No longer are utility bills, bank statements, paychecks or government checks permissible as alternatives.

Thus far, all signs indicate these sensible and needed safeguards have worked well to thwart any hint of voter fraud. Given the absence of or extremely rare incidents of documented voter irregularities, the draconian regulations proposed by SAVE are misguided and counterproductive to attracting maximum voter participation.

According to an analysis of the bill by the Brennan Center for Justice, the SAVE Act would undermine voting rights and disenfranchise tens of millions of American voters, as more than 21 million citizens lack easy access to certified birth certificates or passports.

The bill’s in-person registration requirement could also disenfranchise approximately 60 million American rural voters, who would have to travel great distances to register to vote, according to an analysis by the center.

The SAVE Act also would erect registration struggles for many married women who have changed their names and have misplaced or lost original copies of their marriage paperwork.

What’s more, SAVE would ban increasingly common and popular voter sign-up protocols including online, mail-in and off-site registrations. Over 50 million people used one of these convenient methods to register between 2018 and 2022, compared to less than 12 million who registered in person at official board of elections offices.

The legislation also would place undue and costly burdens on boards of election throughout Ohio. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the bill would require states to collect and document proof of American citizenship from voters, which few states currently do, and establish additional voter list maintenance processes.

That would rise as yet another unfunded mandate for many cash-strapped election agencies as the SAVE Act does not authorize any new federal funding for the new state responsibilities it creates.

With so few assets and so many liabilities inherent to the SAVE Act, we were disheartened that the Mahoning Valley’s delegation to the House of Representatives — U.S. Reps Mike Rulli, R-Salem, and Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge — supported the measure in the largely party-line 220-208 vote in April. In May, an effort to pass the bill by unanimous consent in the Senate failed. Since then, it has languished in committee.

Should the bill emerge for a full vote before the current congressional session ends in December 2026, Ohio’s Sens. Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno should do the right thing and oppose its passage in the name of ensuring maximum voter participation and election integrity.