[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 36 (Tuesday, February 24, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S632-S633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SAVE AMERICA ACT

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise today because I think the 
President tonight is going to continue to talk about his radical 
changes to our electoral system. He has tried by Executive order, just 
as he tried to impose tariffs by Executive order, and he found out that 
he didn't have that authority, according to the Supreme Court. We know 
now that article I, section 4 of the Constitution says that the States 
administer elections, that Congress can regulate, but there is no role 
for the President. I say this because I am very concerned about the 
President's proposal, and I am very concerned about the SAVE Act.
  Greg Kimsey, who is the Clark County auditor of a part of Washington 
where I guarantee you, we have real election issues--basically, the 
other day, in trying to fight against the SAVE America Act said this: 
``Voting is a constitutional right, a barrier to the exercise of 
constitutional right should only be enacted if the government's 
compelling interest is greater than the citizen's individual 
constitutional right, the government's interest in ensuring that only 
U.S. citizens vote would not be significantly enhanced by the SAVE 
[America] Act.''
  So here is a Republican auditor who is basically saying in my State 
that this is a constitutional right by the citizenry of our State and 
that the SAVE America Act is basically putting too much of a burden on 
it.
  Have States been failing in election administration? Is there a 
public outcry from Republicans or Democrats who observe the elections 
every year or the League of Women Voters that the Federal Government 
should overturn our Constitution and give this power to the President?
  State systems right now are working, and they are not finding 
significant voter fraud. States have ways of finding out fraud. That is 
how the system works--because it is based on your signature and saying 
who you are. King County in my State, the largest county by population, 
only had 12 instances of voter fraud in the 2024 election that were 
referred to the prosecutor's office for investigation. Now, we are 
talking out of millions of votes. None were related to a non-citizen 
casting a vote, according to King County elections director Julie Wise. 
Nationally, the conservative Heritage Foundation found 1,620 cases of 
fraud between 1982 and the year 2025, so that is 1,000 cases of voter 
fraud, basically over a 40-year period of time. In Texas, they only 
found 113 cases in those 43 years and, in Georgia, 36 cases.
  So again, by comparison, if you are looking at these numbers from a 
national number, 154 million Americans voted in 2024. The Cato 
Institute, another conservative group, found similar results in places 
like Utah, Louisiana, Idaho, Michigan, and Montana. The League of Women 
Voters is also citing their opposition to the SAVE America Act in 
saying that only one ten-thousandth of 1 percent is the case of voter 
fraud.
  I wish I had a chart up here, is where I could put the zeros--.0001 
percent, so one ten-thousandth of a percent of voter fraud. That is 
what we found. But somehow, people are saying we should disenfranchise 
millions of Americans--some have estimated as high as 9 percent of the 
voting public--to somehow improve that one ten-thousandth of 1 percent. 
Somehow, that is what we should do.
  The League of Women Voters opposes the SAVE America Act because it 
argues: ``By creating a `show your papers' requirement to not only 
register but also to cast a ballot, lawmakers seek to suppress millions 
of eligible Americans from voting.''
  I also had a letter from the former Republican secretary of state in 
my State, Sam Reed, who said: ``I oppose the SAVE [America] Act. 
Neither the President nor Congress should be in the business of 
micromanaging elections. As a longtime Republican election 
administration official, I adamantly support our nation's 
constitutional framers' decision that the election process be 
decentralized to states.''
  I issued a snapshot report last week detailing the impacts of the 
SAVE America Act on the voters, and believe me, it is going to cost 
them time and money. A replacement for a birth certificate--because 
that is what you are going to need to show that you are a U.S. 
citizen--costs anywhere from $23 to $50; a passport can be as much as 
$165. Twenty-one million Americans don't have these documents readily 
available. Seven percent of Texas voters don't. Ten percent of Georgia 
voters don't, and you are basically now asking them to go and find 
them.
  And what about the women in our country that maybe have been 
divorced, don't have the same name; they have paperwork that is messed 
up? How is she going to get the right documentation in the right period 
of time, since passing the SAVE America Act and putting it on the 
President's desk means it is implemented immediately for this election? 
Election officials are generally open normal working hours, which would 
mean a voter would have to take time off from work or hire childcare 
just to go down there and show these papers.
  The SAVE America Act puts up barriers, and it gives the President the 
authority to have Homeland Security reviewing the voter rolls. That is 
right. They would take voting rolls and voting information and 
basically start to approve it. Negligible voter fraud, but yet massive 
disenfranchisement, that is what would be created.
  So I am very concerned because our national voting system does depend 
on you being a U.S. citizen. This is what the ballot actually says--
here is one of my old ballots that I took a picture of. It basically 
says on the outside of your ballot, return as soon as possible by 
election day. This ballot contains an envelope, and your signature will 
be compared to your voter registration, and then it asks you to sign.
  But since I wanted to make this a little clearer, I put this 
attestation that is on the top of the ballot that everybody--so you are 
directed when you see this ballot, you know that that is what you have 
to do. You have to sign there. You have to read this attestation: I do 
solemnly swear and affirm, under the penalty of perjury, that I am a 
U.S. citizen. And it goes on to say that failure of this is a felony 
punishable by a maximum imprisonment of 5 years in jail or a fine of 
$10,000 or both. And then you sign your name.
  Now, the notion that somebody thinks illegal immigrants are running 
around the United States of America signing ballots saying they are a 
U.S. citizen, when they can read right here that it says, I do solemnly 
swear under perjury and these fines that I am a U.S. citizen, I don't 
think so. These people aren't even going to the grocery store right 
now. They are not even going to the doctor's office. They are scared to 
pick their kids up from school.
  And somehow, somebody is perpetrating this notion that they are 
signing ballots and basically trying to sway the election when I just 
said it is one ten-thousandth of 1 percent of voter fraud. And the 
voter fraud that they are catching isn't even non-citizens; it is 
probably people who actually have committed felonies or other types

[[Page S633]]

of actions--because, guess what, when you go to vote and you sign this 
ballot and you register, which also says you have to be a U.S. citizen, 
and then you have people at the voting place--every signature is 
checked. Every signature is checked.

  In fact, in our State, the Washington State Patrol basically advises 
the election officials how to compare the signatures. And while they 
are comparing the signatures, there are Republicans and Democrats and 
League of Women Voters and observers in every election official office 
checking to see that that information is correct.
  Now, you want to move all of that to the Homeland Security Department 
and let them be in charge of this and let them say how many people they 
think should be thrown off the rolls. I don't. This is a constitutional 
right for our States. It is one that is working. There is negligible 
fraud, and we shouldn't change it because you think you are going to 
get one more zero on that one ten-thousandth of 1 percent and 
disenfranchise millions of voters.
  I do not want the Department of Homeland Security acquiring more 
information on us. I do not want the general post office holding 
ballots without postmarking them. I want our country to believe in free 
and fair elections. It is how we move forward. The President of the 
United States tonight should listen, as my guest tonight is the 
secretary of state from Washington whose vote-by-mail system is 
unparalleled in its ability to get the vote out and to be accurate, 
even in the closest of elections.
  And we do catch fraud, and we do match systems against voters and 
information about them, so the system works. So please, please let us 
not tonight forget that voting in our country is a constitutional right 
upheld and pursued by our States. Let's keep that system. Let's turn 
down the SAVE America Act. Let's move our country forward with more 
participation in our elections, again by U.S. citizens in the system 
that has delivered for us today.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.

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