NEW DATA: GOP’s Voter Suppression Law Would Cost WA Taxpayers $35M+ This Year

NEW DATA: GOP's Voter Suppression Law Would Cost WA Taxpayers $35M+ This Year

A new snapshot report from Sen. Cantwell, WA SoS, and WA Assoc. of County Auditors shows the SAVE America Act would spike the cost of administering elections by 60%; Cantwell: "The SAVE America Act will actually cost Americans: time, money, and even their constitutional right to vote"

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) released a snapshot report with new data breaking down just how much the SAVE America Act - a voter suppression bill that the GOP Senate majority intends to take up this coming week - would require from Washington state taxpayers.

According to a new analysis compiled jointly by the Washington Secretary of State's Elections Office and the Washington Association of County Auditors, the State of Washington and its 39 counties together would be forced to spend at least $35.7 million this year alone to comply with the burdens imposed by the SAVE America Act. Subsequent elections would cost at least $9.5 million and up to $14.6 million more than currently spent to administer.

"The SAVE America Act will actually cost Americans: time, money, and even their constitutional right to vote.

"The SAVE America Act will really cost states and taxpayers, too.

"This report reveals how this insidious bill imposes unnecessary demands on state and local elections officials, and creates immediate cost increases for operations, equipment, and staff. From our nation's founding, Americans have fought to expand voting rights to include every American eligible to vote. We should be making it easier, more affordable, and more accessible for American citizens to exercise the right to vote. But the SAVE America Act does the reverse, setting back gains that heroes from the suffrage movement through the Civil Rights movement fought to make real," Sen. Cantwell said.

The Washington Secretary of State's Elections Office reports that the costs imposed by the SAVE America Act would amount to a 60% increase in federal election administration operating costs and an additional $4 million in annual federal voter registration administration costs. New expenses include:

• An estimated $20 million to upgrade systems to comply with the new requirements at state agencies like the Department of Licensing;
• An estimated $3.6 million public education campaign;
• Between $2 million and $4 million for WA counties to buy new voter center equipment, computers, printers, copiers, and more.

The SAVE America Act was narrowly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 11. If it were to pass the Senate - and Senate Majority Leader John Thune has indicated his intent to open debate on the bill this week - it would impose new barriers to voting:

• A requirement that all mail-in ballots include a printed copy of the voter's picture ID.
• A requirement that anyone registering to vote, or changing their registration details, present a birth certificate, passport, or other proof of citizenship documents in person to their county elections office. A driver's license, even a standard REAL ID one, is not proof of citizenship.
• A new private right of action provision that would allow anyone to personally sue an elections worker who they claim registered a noncitizen, even erroneously - opening elections workers up to politically-motivated witch hunts. Election workers may also be subject to criminal prosecution that ends in up to 5-year prison sentence and up to a $250,000 fine. This provision would also act as a deterrent to potential employees as elections offices scramble to hire more personnel to accommodate these very same new requirements.

These requirements may disenfranchise at least 21.3 million legal American voters. In Washington state, for example, 2.8 million citizens do not have a passport or an original or certified copy of their birth certificate that matches the name on their ID. The burden would especially fall on:

• The 1.6 million women in Washington state who have taken their spouse's name and whose birth certificate doesn't match their legal name;
• Rural voters, who in some parts of Washington state will need to make time for a round trip of up to six hours to their county elections office to register or change their documentation in person ahead of Election Day. Currently, those voters are able to make changes online;
• Young people, who are more likely to frequently change addresses.

Last month, Sen. Cantwell released another snapshot report detailing the burdens the SAVE America Act would impose on Washington voters - that report can be read in full HERE.

Despite President Donald Trump's consistent claims to the contrary, voter fraud is so vanishingly rare in the United States as to be statistically nonexistent. Even the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing thinktank behind Project 2025, found that an average of 36 fraudulent ballots have been cast every year over the last 40 years - nationwide. For context, around 154 million Americans voted in the 2024 election.

The same Heritage Foundation analysis found that Washington state sees an average of one case of voter fraud every three years. That amounts to an error rate of 0.000006% -- fewer than one in 10 million.

An election-by-election breakdown of when fraudulent ballots have been cast in Washington state can be found in today's snapshot report HERE.

Sen. Cantwell has been a staunch defender of Washingtonians' voting rights and the vote-by-mail system and has been sounding the alarm about how the SAVE America Act would be disastrous for free and fair elections:

• On Feb. 24, Sen. Cantwell invited Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs as her guest to President Trump's State of the Union address to draw attention to the issue.
• On Feb. 20, she convened local leaders in Seattle for a press conference urging Washingtonians to fight back against these proposed new burdens to voting;
• On Feb. 19, she gathered in Vancouver with the Clark County Auditor and local chapter heads of the League of Women Voters and the NAACP for a press conference on how this bill would disenfranchise voters;
• On Feb. 5, she appeared on MSNOW's Morning Joe to push back against the Trump administration's heightened efforts to interfere in state-run elections and collect private data on American voters. Video of Sen. Cantwell's appearance is HERE; a transcript is HERE.
• On Jan. 29, Sen. Cantwell joined Senate colleagues in a letter to AG Pam Bondi, pushing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to stop its unlawful pressure campaign to coerce dozens of states into providing the Trump Administration their voter rolls, which include voters' personally identifiable information. DOJ has sued 24 states - including Washington state - and the District of Columbia demanding the personal information of their voters.
• On Jan. 15, she joined Senate colleagues in a letter to United States Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General David Steiner raising concerns with recent developments affecting postmark practices. Right before the holiday season, USPS change its postmark practices, which could have significant impacts on voters nationwide and in Washington state - including rural voters, military and overseas voters, and many others who rely on rely on the mail to safely and securely cast their ballot.
• On Jan. 9, she joined 13 Senate colleagues in filing an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in Watson v. Republican National Committee, a significant case the Court will hear next week that affects voting by mail. The case, brought by the Republican National Committee, threatens the election administration practices of states like Washington that permit the counting of mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day to be counted when they are received within a certain number of days after Election Day.