SAVE America Act a threat to our democracy

Published 1:30 am Thursday, February 19, 2026

Republicans in Congress continue to pursue a solution in search of a problem, promoting the SAVE America Act to score political points based upon divisive rhetoric rather than common sense.

As the bill to require voter ID made its way through the House of Representatives for the second time last week, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, reversed her earlier vote and opposed the measure. It is a logical decision that rejects the demagoguery behind the bill.

Supporters of the legislation say provisions requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote, photo identification when voting via mail or at the polls, and turning over state voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security are necessary to prevent noncitizens from voting in federal elections.

Opponents say election reform pursued by Republicans would jeopardize mail-in voting and disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, including married women whose identification may not match the name on their birth certificate.

“All of us in Southwest Washington agree that only U.S. citizens should determine the outcome of U.S. elections, but this bill is more concerned with duct-taping together a government-run photocopying service than actually advancing the serious goal of ensuring free and fair elections,” Perez said after voting against the bill. “Vote-by-mail is the gold standard in election security, and the SAVE America Act would undermine our state’s long-standing elections process by forcing Washingtonians to jump through nonsensical bureaucratic hoops in order to mail in their ballot.”

An analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University has found the rate of noncitizens voting is approximately 0.0001 percent nationally — 1 out of every 1 million votes. And a review by the right-wing Heritage Foundation also found that voter fraud is minimal. In 28 elections over 20 years in Wisconsin, for example, there were 69 reported cases of fraud out of more than 45 million votes — and that was the highest rate among states studied.

But Republicans continue to push the narrative while looking to appease President Donald Trump, who has an unhealthy obsession with the false narrative.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to attempt an authoritarian takeover of elections, recently urging that: “Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places … the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

The U.S. Constitution says that states are in charge of voting. And the fact that Trump was caught on tape urging Georgia officials to overturn that state’s results in the 2020 presidential election — “I just want to find 11,780 votes” — creates doubt about the integrity of a Trump administration seizing control of elections.

Instead, Republicans under Trump have engaged in a drip-drip-drip strategy that erodes the system that is the foundation of American democracy. Kristi Noem, secretary of Homeland Security, said during a press conference this month, “When it gets to Election Day, we’ve been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country.”

That reveals the nefarious motivation behind Republicans’ quest for “election integrity.” It is not about security or fixing an existing problem; it is about an autocratic power grab that would destroy our democratic system.

The SAVE America Act passed the House 218-213 but is unlikely to survive a filibuster and pass the Senate. Americans must pay attention to this serious threat to our democracy.