What is the SAVE Act, and what are its potential impacts in Alaska?
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Some Alaskans are raising the alarm about a controversial bill moving through Congress. If passed, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, better known as the “SAVE Act,” would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
The bill passed the House of Representatives on April 10 with four Democrats voting in favor along with all 214 Republicans’ votes, including Alaska Rep. Nick Begich. The piece of legislation made it to the Senate right as Congress headed home for the Easter holiday.
With this pause, advocacy groups across Alaska are raising some concerns with the legislation, citing potential issues for Native Alaskans, women, military members, voter registrars and voters in rural Alaska.
Under federal law, everyone registering to vote must swear, under penalty of perjury, that they are a citizen. While voting by noncitizens is already illegal and punishable by severe criminal penalties, the SAVE Act would require anyone registering to vote to provide documented proof of citizenship.
Proponents of the bill say that it is common sense.
“Even though it is currently against the law, only the U.S. citizens should decide U.S. elections. There’s no way to make sure that’s actually happening,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said. “So, the SAVE Act is so critically important.”
However, critics say it’s a solution in search of a problem.
“Since 2011, there has been one recorded instance of a non-citizen attempting to vote in Alaska,” said Democracy and Civic Engagement Fellow at The Alaska Center, Ayden Nichol. “There are incredibly strict penalties for non-citizens who attempt to vote. Those can include jail time and deportation. It just is vanishingly rare that anyone tries to risk deportation or jail time to cast a ballot illegally.”
Meaning that Alaska driver’s licenses, tribal IDs and military IDs would not satisfy the new requirement to register to vote. The bill does carve out an exception for some of these by allowing voters to sign an affidavit in person, but opponents say it isn’t practical.
“Most tribal IDs don’t include the place of a person’s birth or their citizenship status,” Executive Director of the ACLU of Alaska Mara Kimmel said. “So, while there may be an exception carved out in all practical purposes, that’s not going to satisfy the requirements of the SAVE Act that you prove citizenship. Because those tribal IDs just don’t contain that information, much like state driver’s licenses don’t contain that information.”
The same criticism goes for members of the military who would be labeled as ineligible to vote.
“We also, of course, have over 20,000 military members who live in the state, and many of them live away from addresses where they’re registered to vote,” Nichol said. “So, those folks would have to take time off from their service to go to an elections officer to register in person.”
Advocates of the bill say that the hoops ultimately are worth it because the United States would have an election system that the people could trust.
“It follows common sense, and the American People are with us,” Johnson said.
Another criticism of the bill concerns people who have changed their name from the one on their birth certificate.
“A woman who has been voting under her maiden name and then gets married and takes her husband’s name has to jump through a lot of hoops just to be able to vote with her new name,” said President of the League of Women Voters of Anchorage, Patty Ginsburg.
Kimmel added, “People change their names for a variety of reasons and don’t then change it on their passports or their birth certificates ... people have a right to change their name; they often do.”
Proponents say the concern for women and those who have changed their name is overblown.
“That is a complete fallacy, there are ways outlined in the bill about how to avoid that. The president very much supports a common-sense solution to ensuring that only citizens can engage in our elections,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The next requirement is that registering to vote must be done in person. The Supremacy Clause in the Constitution outlines that federal law always overrides state laws. There has been some leeway with this throughout history, but opponents of the bill say this legislation will disenfranchise thousands of currently eligible Alaskan voters by requiring documentation to be presented in person.
“The other really significant hurdle that this act presents is that you have to go present it in person. That’s, of course, a problem anywhere. That’s a big burden, but especially in Alaska, with our unique geography,” Nichol said.
“Currently in Alaska, we have this great system of automatic voter registration, which you can do through the PFD, and that would in all likelihood be entirely invalidated under the SAVE Act, even if it wasn’t, even if you could still register through the PFD, you would then have to go in person to present your documentation,” he added.
There are six total locations in Alaska where someone could go to present their documentation: Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Nome, Wasilla, and Kenai.
However, the bill does build out an exception for those rural villages.
“According to the SAVE Act, if an Alaskan registers to vote by mail, votes early, or as part of same-day voting, that person can take their ID showing U.S. citizenship or an affidavit to their polling location, which should include every village and municipality in Alaska,” Coyne said.
“Only 5% of Alaskans registered to vote in person. The rest of us do it in some other form or fashion, and only six cities in Alaska have election offices, and the staffing required to take those voter registrations. So, people would have to travel to one of those six hubs through ferry, air, road,” Kimmel said.
The SAVE Act has not been scheduled for debate on the Senate floor, and Sen. Chuck Schumer has vowed to fight the legislation. At least seven Democrats would need to vote in favor of the bill for it to pass the Senate and reach President Trump.
Sen. Dan Sullivan is supportive of the bill.
Alaska’s News Source reached out to Sen. Murkowski and Rep. Begich, who voted in favor, but had not heard back by the time of publication.
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