At his State of the Union address on Feb. 24, President Donald Trump alluded to his plan to alter voting laws as he urged Congress to push through the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
“I’m asking you to pass the SAVE America Act, to stop illegal aliens and others, or unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections,” Trump said.
The bill’s “show your papers” requirements could have damaging impacts on voter registration and eligibility, potentially hindering Native Americans’ ability to vote.
“It’s creating more blockage and it’s doing its job, which is to prevent people from voting,” Jaynie Parrish, executive director of Arizona Native Vote, said. “I don’t even call it the SAVE Act. I’m telling people that it’s a bill ‘to make it harder to vote act.’”
It is illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote. Each state, except North Dakota, has a voter registration system that requires applicants to declare citizenship status in order to register to vote under threat of perjury.
Arizona is one of nine states that introduced laws requiring documented proof of citizenship, like a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote in local and state elections. The SAVE Act would extend these requirements to all states for federal elections.
That would require American citizens to provide “valid” forms of identification — like a birth certificate or passport — when registering to vote, not photo IDs like drivers licenses and tribal identification, unless those documents showcase an applicant's place of birth in the United States.
“No tribal ID anywhere says where somebody was born or says that they were in the United States,” said Allison Neswood, a senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund. “It’s kind of a straw man. It says tribal ID is allowed, but it’s not.”
A study from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law found over 21 million eligible voters do not have access to valid forms of documentation such as a birth certificate or passport.
Parrish said this disproportionately affects voters in American Indian and Alaskan Native populations, adding “no one has these documents unless you’re super organized.”
The latest version of the bill passed the House in February by a five-vote margin. All House Republicans, including the Arizona delegation, voted for the bill.
“For an alderman or legislator in Arizona, you’re going to have to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, can’t do it for the president though. How absurd is that?” Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs of Gilbert said on the House floor last month. “We’ve had no problems, there’s been no voter suppression.”
But the SAVE Act's passage in the Senate won’t be so simple. With a 53 to 47 majority, Senate Republicans lack the Democratic backing to push it through the 60-vote threshold. And with Trump looking to expand its more stringent provisions, such as eliminating exemptions for mail-in voting, Republican support in the Senate could dwindle.
During the 2024 election, Arizona was the only state to enforce the requirements Biggs was referencing. This created the “federal-only voter,” where Arizona residents who lacked proof of citizenship documentation could not cast ballots in local and state elections.
“These are the elections which Native voters as a small population can have the most impact on,” Neswood said.
More than 34,000 Arizonans are federal-only voters, roughly 7% of which live in precincts on or close to a reservation.
According to data from Votebeat, only 19% of these voters participated in the 2024 presidential election, much less than the roughly 79% turnout among the rest of Arizona voters.
Neswood and Parrish echoed that some people living on reservations could travel hundreds of miles, taking hours each way, to register to vote or cast ballots in their precincts.
For Kaibab Paiutes living in the northwestern corner of Arizona, the nearest county seat is over 280 miles away. The trek can range between five and seven hours of travel around the Grand Canyon.
There are over 230 polling locations scattered throughout Maricopa County, nearly five times more than the number of polls offered in Apache and Navajo counties.
An average voter in Maricopa County can find polling locations within 2 miles of one another, a stark contrast to the nearly 20 to 30 miles between polls on the Navajo reservation.
The SAVE Act as it stands would also upend mail-in voting. If passed, registered mail-in voters would be required to present “documentary proof of United States citizenship in person to the office of the appropriate election official,” the bill reads.
During the last midterm cycle, over 80% of ballots cast in Arizona were by mail, more than double the national average.
So far, eight states have enacted universal mail-in voting systems, where all voting-aged citizens who qualify can receive a mail-in ballot by default for all local, general and federal elections.
Mail-in voting has closed the gaps for minority populations. In 2020, more than half of the eligible voters in the disabled population voted by mail.
“It’s a very popular voting choice and it’s an incredibly critical one for voters with disabilities,” said Maya Abela, a legal director at Disability Rights Arizona.
But the same can’t be said for Indigenous populations. Over 40,000 homes on reservations across Arizona lack a physical address. This, combined with limited postal services can hinder access to vote by mail systems.
“It’s just really crazy in terms of the timing, even for snail mail, that gets, if not doubled or tripled in time,” Parrish said.
Arizona has shifted purple in recent elections. Much of the shift away from staunch single-party loyalty can be partly credited to the state’s minority populations.
“Native tribal voters have shown historically to swing elections,” Parrish said.
In 2024, Arizona had the third largest Native American population in the country: more than 461,000, according to U.S. census data. This population was pivotal for former President Joe Biden’s win in Arizona in 2020, despite Trump securing the state only four years prior.
Precincts on Navajo and Hopi reservations saw nearly 17,500 more ballots cast in 2020 compared to the 2016 presidential election. Turnout in two of the larger precincts in these regions rose, and Biden outpaced Trump in both, according to analysis by the Associated Press.
“Turnout in tribal communities have been pretty powerful,” Parrish said.
