Native Americans Could Be Among the Hardest Hit by SAVE America Act

The voting bill that President Donald Trump wants Republicans to pass would make it harder for Native Americans who live on tribal land to vote, advocates and lawmakers say.

The SAVE America Act, which is expected to get a vote in the Senate sometime this week, would have sweeping ramifications for many eligible voters if it becomes law. Native Americans, who often live hundreds of miles away from the closest polling place and have lower rates of passport ownership, could be among the hardest hit.

“Tribes hate this. But you know, the truth is, everybody hates this. This is not voter ID. This is going to remove tens of millions of people from the voter rolls without even informing them, and without even giving them a chance to remedy it,” Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, the vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, told NOTUS. “We’re a hard no, and I don’t think they will succeed.”

Republicans say the SAVE America Act, which does not currently have the votes to pass in the Senate, is necessary to prevent noncitizens from voting in U.S. elections, despite the fact that data shows this rarely happens. In crafting their legislation, Republicans included provisions that would require voters to show proof of citizenship in person to register to vote and to cast mail-in ballots.

Advocates are worried that the bill’s in-person requirement would disenfranchise many people who lack easy access to election centers.

“All of those things are harder in Indian Country,” said Jacqueline De León, a senior staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, a legal assistance nonprofit. “Election services are too far, sometimes located at county seats that can be hundreds of miles away. On reservation, opportunities are extremely limited if they exist at all.”

The bill contains language that says tribal IDs can be used as proof of citizenship, but must show “that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States.”

De León argued that the nod to tribes was little more than perfunctory.

“Tribal IDs are really a red herring in this bill,” De León said. “We have heard of no tribal IDs that have a place of location of birth on them at this time.”

Tribal members have long struggled to use their tribal IDs to vote in states where voter ID is already required at the polls. Now, lawmakers worry the issue will only get worse.

“The SAVE Act is essentially a voter suppression bill,” Democratic Sen. Tina Smith told NOTUS. “Then you layer on top of it questions about whether they will recognize or acknowledge tribal IDs. You know, this has been a huge problem with their immigration work in Minnesota.”

Smith was referring to the Native American citizens who were mistakenly arrested, detained or questioned by federal agents in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge. Lawmakers worry that election officials could present similar challenges to Native American voters — the legislation would create stricter criminal penalties if officials register a noncitizen to vote.

“We need to think about this in the context of the trust and treaty obligations that the federal government has to Native people that is much bigger than any particular law. It has to do with our root relationship with them as sovereign nations,” Smith said.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, told reporters that the bill would disenfranchise voters more broadly. She said in her state there would only be six places where Alaskans could go in person to show the documents needed to register to vote under this new bill.

“I’m not supportive of the bill as it’s written,” Murkowski told NOTUS.

Many Republicans support the legislation, including those who represent large Native American populations. Republican Sen. Mike Lee, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate whose home state of Utah is home to more than 50 Native American tribes, did not respond to a request for comment from NOTUS about some of the concerns Democrats and advocates laid out.

Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma did not respond to an inquiry about what the bill would mean for tribal nations in his state, but he has expressed support for the SAVE America Act.

“Oklahoma has already had voter ID laws for years—both for absentee ballots and in-person voting. We do it well. Let’s pass the SAVE America Act and make voter ID laws apply nationwide,” Lankford said in a post on X last week.

Other documentation that could be used to register to vote under the SAVE America Act, like a passport, driver’s license or birth certificate, could also be difficult for tribe members to obtain.

“American Indian and Alaska Native communities are impacted disproportionately by poverty, and these documents, such as a passport, are often expensive to get,” Michelle Kanter Cohen, policy director and senior counsel at the Fair Elections Center, told NOTUS.

The broader concern among lawmakers and advocates is that the bill creates even more barriers for an already often-disenfranchised demographic of voters, especially as midterms near.

“This would be an area that would hurt First Americans. It would be devastating, taking away rights from our brothers and sisters throughout the country that live in our First Nations,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján.