03/15/2026
Excuse my French but it deserves it.
Here is an article from the Native American Rights Fund NARF if you need more context: https://narf.org/save-act-hurts-native-voters/ #:~:text=They%20would%20require%20applicants%20who,registration%20drives%20using%20paper%20forms.
F**k the SAVE Act. Call your Senators and Representatives and tell them to squash that stupid bill.
The SAVE Act would require people to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship (like a passport or certified birth certificate) when registering to vote in federal elections.
That might sound simple to some people,
but it would be devastating for rural Alaska and Alaska Native communities.
Here’s why:
• Many rural communities don’t have DMVs. Some villages are hundreds of miles from the nearest DMV or government office. Travel can require flights that cost hundreds of dollars.
• Mail and document access is limited. Getting certified birth certificates or passports can take weeks or months and cost money many people don’t have.
• No road system in many villages. People in places like the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta must travel by plane, boat, or snowmachine just to access basic services.
• It targets rural and Indigenous voters. Voting access is already harder in rural Alaska due to polling place closures and language barriers. This bill would make it even harder.
The right to vote shouldn’t depend on whether you live near a DMV or can afford a plane ticket.
Alaska Native people have fought too hard for the right to vote to let politicians take it away with bureaucratic barriers.
Call your representatives. Tell them to vote NO on the SAVE Act.
Protect rural voters. Protect Alaska Native voters. Protect democracy.
The SAVE Act (H.R. 22 / S. 128) and SAVE America Act (S. 1383) would force Native voters living in rural or remote areas to travel great distances to register to vote. They would require applicants who register to vote by mail to also provide documents in person before the voter registration deadline, eliminating the accessibility and purpose of a mail voter registration system, as well as voter registration drives using paper forms.
The proposed voter restrictions would effectively eliminate popular methods of voter registration, including online and mail registration, as well as voter registration drives.
Americans would be required to physically travel to their designated election office, during weekday business hours, to present their documentation to an election official.
American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native citizens living in rural and remote areas travel further from their elections offices than the average American. In some areas of the country people living in Tribal communities would have to travel over 100 miles or even get on an airplane in order to reach their designated election office.
The proposed voter restrictions would disenfranchise eligible American Indian and Alaska Native voters.
The bills would require all Americans registering to vote to provide documents that prove their citizenship. For most, this “show your papers” law would require voters to produce a passport or birth certificate every time they register or re-register.
More than 21 million eligible voters don’t have these documents readily available. Some Americans are more likely than others to lack these documents, including elderly and younger voters, American Indian and Alaska Native voters, and the millions of married individuals who changed their names causing their documents to not match.
When Kansas and Arizona implemented similar “show your papers” laws, they blocked tens of thousands of eligible American citizens from registering to vote.
Arizona’s law has blocked about 35,000 voters from voting in state and local elections, including disproportionately high numbers of voters who live on Tribal lands or college campuses. The SAVE Act and Save America Acts, which are even more restrictive, will block even more Native voters from participating in federal elections as well.
The SAVE and SAVE America Acts would block American Indian and Alaska Native citizens’ ability to use Tribal identification alone to register to vote.
Because state departments of motor vehicles are generally located far from Tribal lands, it can be enormously difficult for Tribal citizens to obtain state-issued identification. For this reason, many use Tribal ID as their primary form of identification.
The legislation claims that Tribal members will be able to use their Tribal ID to register to vote. However, the bills require that Tribal IDs include the ID holder’s place of birth. Tribal IDs, like other forms of government-issued ID do not include birth information.
American Indian and Alaska Native citizens with a Tribal ID would need to provide an additional document, such as a certified birth certificate, hospital record, or adoption decree to register to vote. These documents are difficult to obtain and expensive to replace if they are lost or destroyed.
