Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and 10 of her Senate colleagues in sounding the alarm on the devastating impacts of President Trump’s anti-voter “election integrity” executive order and the SAVE Act on Native American voting rights.
“Enactment of new voter registration policies under the Executive Order and the SAVE Act would lead to mass disenfranchisement of eligible Native voters and further depress the Native vote,” wrote the Senators. “Tribal IDs generally lack place of birth information required by the legislation, and the vast majority of these IDs lack the specific U.S. citizenship documentation required by the Executive Order. And the SAVE Act’s in-person requirement would exacerbate existing barriers, such as requiring IDs that list residential mailing addresses, by forcing many Native voters to travel great distances, including costly flights or multi-hour drives, to reach their local elections office or polling place.”
“As Secretary of the Interior, you have a special moral and legal responsibility to uphold our nation’s trust and treaty obligations,” continued the Senators. “If implemented, the sweeping federal mandates included in the Executive Order and the SAVE Act would disenfranchise eligible Native voters who are following state laws. We encourage your active engagement with the White House and the Department of Justice to ensure that Native communities are able to exercise the franchise fully and have their voices heard at the ballot box.”
Tribal IDs are currently an acceptable form of documentation to register to vote in nearly every state, but the SAVE Act and Trump executive order require that an ID must show place of birth and citizenship, which the majority of Tribal IDs lack, adding another barrier to the ballot box for many Native American communities. The Senators underscored that if enacted, these provisions would force Tribal voters who live in rural and remote locations to travel significant distances to prove their citizenship in order to register to vote.
The Senators also emphasized the disproportionate impact the vote-by-mail restrictions would have on Native communities, which often rely more on mail-in voting because of a lack of infrastructure and transportation access. Trump’s executive order penalizes states that accept absentee or mail-in ballots received after Election Day, harming Native voters in states like Nevada, Alaska, North Dakota, Oregon, and California that process ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.
Only 66 percent of Native Americans eligible to participate in elections are currently registered to vote, leaving more than 1 million eligible voting-age Native Americans unregistered. Creating further obstacles to register to vote would likely reduce these numbers even further.
Senator Cortez Masto has long been a champion for Tribal communities. Last year, the Senate passed both her legislation to make it easier for Indian Health Services to recruit and retain doctors and her legislation to strengthen Tribal public safety. She repeatedly called on the Biden administration to do more to address the epidemic of violence against Native women and girls, including securing federal funding to protect Native communities, urging the administration to draft a plan to address this issue, and requesting the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate the federal response to this crisis.
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