[CCCNFBW] Sen. Cantwell says election fraud rare, SAVE Act would create barrier for Clark County voters

[Merribeth Greenberg]

This is from the Colombian newspaper about the SAVE ACT bill in the
national legislation.
Sen. Cantwell says election fraud rare, SAVE Act would create barrier for
Clark County votersTrending
Senator joins local officials to decry push for stricter voter ID laws
Photo of Kelly Moyer
By Kelly Moyer, Columbian Staff Reporter
Published: February 18, 2026, 2:27pm

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell on Wednesday warned that the latest version of the
Republican-backed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act
threatens to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters ahead of the
midterm elections.

“It is not going to save us. It is going to cost us,” said Cantwell,
D-Wash, during a press conference at the Clark County Elections Office
Wednesday morning.

Cantwell met with Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey and other local leaders
to discuss how the SAVE Act could cause unexpected hardships for voters.
The act passed the House on Feb. 11 and is expected to come up for a vote
in the Senate next week.

Republicans argue the legislation is needed to ensure noncitizens aren’t
voting in federal elections. To make sure only U.S. citizens are voting,
the SAVE Act would require voters to show proof of citizenship — a birth
certificate, passport or Real ID in the few states that include citizenship
status on the Real IDs — when registering to vote and photo identification
when voting.

But Cantwell and Kimsey stressed it is already illegal for noncitizens to
vote in federal elections. Violations carry stiff penalties of five years
in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.

“The claims about fraud are incorrect,” Cantwell said. “Take it from the
conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, which tracks voter fraud
and found just 15 cases … in Washington state between the years 1982 and
2025.”

In that same period, she said, the Heritage Foundation found only 1,620
cases nationwide.

“That’s the entire country over four decades,” Cantwell said. “We don’t
have widespread election fraud.”

Nancy Halvorsen, membership director of the Clark County and Washington
League of Women Voters, encouraged people who are concerned about the
safety and security of the election system to visit their local elections
office or become an election observer.

“A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than they are to commit
voter fraud,” Halvorsen said. “Watch the process and you will see firsthand
that claims of election fraud and inaccuracy are, quite simply, lies.”

If it passes the Senate and is signed into law by President Donald Trump,
the SAVE Act would go into effect immediately.

“It would be a significant challenge to comply with that requirement,”
Kimsey said. “If the SAVE Act became law, we would work diligently to
comply with the law, (but) it would put a very large strain on this office.”

‘Hallmark of democracy’
Cantwell said her office is releasing a report this week about how the SAVE
Act will “cost Washingtonians time, money and maybe even their vote.”

In a news release, Cantwell’s office noted that, according to the Center
for American Progress, about 2.8 million Washingtonians do not have a
passport and about 1.6 million women in Washington who have taken their
spouse’s last name do not have a birth certificate matching their legal
name, which could cause issues when registering to vote or trying to prove
legal identity when voting.

“The burden would fall hardest on Washingtonians living in rural areas,”
according to the news release.

The senator’s office pointed out that, in Clark County, an Amboy resident
would need to drive about 1 hour and 40 minutes, round trip, to the county
elections office in Vancouver, when registering to vote or changing their
registration. In Cowlitz County, a Yale resident would face a 2-hour,
20-minute round-trip drive to the county elections office in Kelso.

Washington has had a statewide vote-by-mail system since 2011. Under the
SAVE Act, voters who are mailing ballots would need to include a photocopy
of their official government photo identification with their mail-in ballot.

“We need to fight back,” Cantwell said. “These changes will make it
difficult for senior citizens, rural community voters, working parents and
so many others to actually vote.”

Cantwell added that the U.S. elections system is unique in the world and
deserves protection.

“The president for four years has been claiming massive voter fraud,
particularly attacking vote by mail. He even talked about nationalizing the
elections,” Cantwell said.

“But President Trump is wrong. He believes that our election system hasn’t
been fair, but I can tell you this: It has been the hallmark of our
democracy for decades,” Cantwell said. “It is how we make tough decisions
and move forward as a nation.”

‘A civil rights issue’
Rev. Michael Jones Jr., the vice president of the NAACP’s Vancouver
chapter, also spoke Wednesday in opposition to the SAVE Act. He said voting
rights are a civil rights issue.

“It has been over half a century since the Civil Rights Act and the Voting
Rights Act were signed into law, and yet here we are in 2026, still in
rooms like this, having to reaffirm that access to ballots matter,” he
said. “When voting rights are weakened, civil rights are placed at risk
because the ballot is how communities protect themselves.”

Jones said Americans should not “be in the business of making participation
harder” when it comes to voting.

Sen. Cantwell says election fraud rare, SAVE Act would create barrier for
Clark County voters - The Columbian
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