Baumgartner Voted to Make Voting Harder in Eastern Washington
Suppression, not Protection
Representative Michael Baumgartner of Washington’s 5th Congressional District (CD5) voted on February 11, 2026, for legislation that would change how voters in his district register and cast ballots in federal elections. The bill, formally titled the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act and known as the SAVE America Act, would require documentary proof of United States citizenship to register and government-issued photo identification to vote. The House approved the measure by a 218–213 largely party-line vote.1 Baumgartner wrote that he was “proud to vote YES on the SAVE America Act.”2 The bill now sits in the Senate. Its sponsors said it was needed to prevent noncitizen voting in federal elections. A Utah audit of more than two million registered voters between April and August of 2025 found one improper noncitizen registration and zero noncitizen votes cast.3
Before the Change
Washington has conducted elections entirely by mail since 2011, when the state required counties to send ballots to every registered voter.4 Registration can be completed remotely, and ballots are returned through the mail or secure drop boxes. For voters in the district, this is the infrastructure of federal elections.
The bill would change both stages of participation: voter registration and voting. An applicant who submits a mail voter registration form would not be considered registered unless they present documentary proof of United States citizenship in person to the appropriate election official by the registration deadline. For voting, an election official could not accept a mail-in ballot unless the voter includes proof of identity with the ballot. A voter may submit either a copy of a valid photo identification or the last four digits of their Social Security number together with a state-provided affidavit. The affidavit is a sworn statement signed under penalty of perjury confirming that the voter is the person casting the ballot and is eligible to vote. The bill also directs state and local governments to provide public access to digital imaging devices at government buildings so voters can make a copy of their identification at no cost, though doing so still requires an in-person visit.
The Numbers
The proof-of-citizenship requirement intersects with Washington’s driver’s license system. The standard license, with the notation “Federal Limits Apply” in the top right corner, does not indicate citizenship and does not qualify as standalone proof under the SAVE America Act; only an Enhanced Driver License or Enhanced ID satisfies that requirement.5 As of late 2025, about 33 percent of Washington license and ID holders have an enhanced credential, meaning most do not.6CD5 has a citizen voting-age population of approximately 602,000,7 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Using statewide credential rates, that is approximately 403,000 eligible voters who lack a standalone REAL ID credential.8Those voters could still present other documents such as a passport or certified birth record. Many Americans do not have those documents readily available and would need to obtain them before registering. Baumgartner voted for these requirements in a district where roughly two-thirds of eligible voters lack the standalone credential the bill would require.
The Tribes, First to Be Affected
CD5 is home to the Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, and part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Native voters in the district hold identification issued by their tribal governments. These documents are used for housing, employment, health care, and other civic purposes.
Under the bill, those identifications would not satisfy the registration requirement unless they show the applicant’s place of birth. The Native American Rights Fund notes that most tribal IDs do not include place-of-birth information,9 meaning a voter presenting only a tribal ID would be required to produce additional documentation. The bill also requires photo identification with an expiration date to cast a ballot in federal elections. The Brennan Center for Justice has reported that many tribal IDs do not contain expiration dates.10 A tribal voter relying on a tribal ID could therefore find that the same document is insufficient at both registration and voting.
Mail registrants must present qualifying documentation in person by the registration deadline. In a district with few nearby government offices, obtaining alternative documents such as a certified birth certificate or passport typically requires fees, supporting paperwork, and travel to state or federal records offices, which are often located far from rural tribal communities. An Enhanced Driver License, which would satisfy the requirement, costs $78 compared with $54 for a standard license.11
When Arizona implemented a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration in 2004, it blocked approximately 35,000 voters from participating in state and local elections, with disproportionate impact on tribal lands, according to the Native American Rights Fund.12
Women and the Mismatch
Women change their legal names through marriage, divorce, or remarriage far more frequently than men. Under the bill, a voter in CD5 who has changed her legal name may hold a driver’s license in her current name while her birth certificate, one of the qualifying citizenship documents, reflects a prior surname. Presenting those documents together creates a name discrepancy.
The bill directs states to accept the application if the voter provides additional documentation linking the names, such as a marriage certificate, divorce decree, or court order, or signs an affidavit attesting that the prior name is hers, a requirement that disproportionately affects women.
A registrant with a name discrepancy would have to gather those documents and present them in person before the registration deadline. When Kansas implemented a similar proof-of-citizenship requirement in 2013, more than 30,000 voter registration applications were suspended or canceled between 2013 and 2016 because applicants did not provide the required citizenship documentation.13
The Price of Proof
In CD5, a voter who holds only a standard driver’s license must obtain another qualifying document to register. Upgrading to an Enhanced Driver License costs a $24 premium over a standard license. A certified birth certificate, one of the documents voters may need to prove citizenship, can cost between $10 and $50 depending on the state of issuance. In Washington, the fee is $25 per certified copy.14 A United States passport costs between $130 and $165.15 CD5 has a median household income below the state average and spans a largely rural region with fewer Department of Licensing offices than western Washington.16 Each in-person visit adds time and transportation costs to the direct fees.
The bill provides an alternative attestation process for voters who cannot produce the required documents, but that process still requires appearing in person.
Nationally, a Brennan Center survey found that approximately 21 million eligible voters lack ready access to the documents this bill would require.17 Keaton Sunchild of Western Native Voice, writing in the Albuquerque Journal, compared the resulting documentation costs to a modern-day poll tax.18
“Just Common Sense”
Baumgartner characterized the SAVE America Act as a practical necessity in a post on X, writing, “Requiring ID to vote is just common sense. I was proud to vote YES on the SAVE America Act.”19 In a campaign fundraising email sent to supporters on March 5, Baumgartner again promoted the legislation and urged donors to contribute to his reelection campaign while pressing the Senate to pass the bill.
The bill he supported requires documentary proof of citizenship to register, in-person presentation of that documentation for mail registrants, submission of statewide voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security, exclusion of student identification cards, new restrictions on tribal identification, and additional identification requirements for mail-in ballots.
The legislation does considerably more than require identification to vote. Its provisions track recommendations in a Heritage Foundation governing blueprint known as Project 2025, which called for voter registration violations to be “appropriately investigated and prosecuted.”20
For voters in his district, including those whose tribal IDs are rejected, whose legal names no longer match their birth certificates, or who must pay for documents they do not have, what he calls ‘common sense’ translates into a complicated set of requirements they must satisfy to cast a vote.
Suppression By Any Other Name
The bill has majority support in the Senate but faces a Democratic filibuster.21 Even so, its sponsors see value in the fight itself. In the Spokesman-Review, Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, who voted for the measure, called requiring ID to vote a “huge political winner” and said that if he were in charge, he would force Democrats to “vote on it every day.”22
A federal court has already struck down a state proof-of-citizenship requirement nearly identical to the one in the SAVE America Act. In Fish v. Kobach, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, appointed by President George W. Bush, struck down Kansas’s proof-of-citizenship requirement after a full bench trial.23 The state had argued that noncitizen voter registration fraud was the “tip of the iceberg.” After reviewing the evidence, Robinson found “there is no iceberg, only an icicle, largely created by confusion and administrative error.”24 The ruling was upheld on appeal and left standing by the Supreme Court.25 The requirement the court struck down in Kansas is the same one the SAVE America Act would impose nationally.
Whether it becomes law this year or not, the vote Baumgartner cast on the House floor in Washington, D.C. is now part of the record for voters in Eastern Washington. The name itself, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, promises protection. The bill delivers something closer to suppression: a documentation regime that would force hundreds of thousands of eligible voters to prove what the state already knows about them, or lose access to the ballot.
Endnotes
1. Roll Call Vote No. 69, 119th Congress, S. 1383, Final Passage. Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, February 11, 2026. https://clerk.house.gov/Votes?BillNum=S.1383&RollCallNum=69
2. Rep. Michael Baumgartner (@RepBaumgartner), post on X (formerly Twitter), February 11, 2026.
https://x.com/RepBaumgartner/status/2021742334778749299
3. Utah Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Citizenship Review Process, memorandum from Lt. Gov. Deidre M. Henderson, January 22, 2026.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CNkU8qcrIQ-vYUaE4OyCBqydk5toZAR9/view
4. Washington State Legislature, Revised Code of Washington § 29A.40.010 (Mail ballot elections), as amended through 2011 session law (2011 c 10 s 35). https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=29A.40.010
5. (A) Federal requirement: S. 1383 as amended (119th Congress), Section 2(a)(1). https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1383 (B) WA credential structure: Washington State Department of Licensing, Enhanced Driver License (EDL). https://www.dol.wa.gov/driver-licenses-and-permits/enhanced-driver-license-edl
6. Washington State Department of Licensing, Driver Licensing Office Workload Report, Q3 CY 2025 (data as of October 1, 2025): approximately 2.26 million EDL/EID holders = 33% of active credential population. https://dol.wa.gov/media/pdf/5020/licensing-office-quarterly-report-2025-q3pdf/download
7. U.S. Census Bureau, Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) Special Tabulation from the 2020–2024 5-Year American Community Survey, Congressional District dataset (CD.csv), Washington Congressional District 5 (GEOID 5305), Total row: CVAP_EST = 601,844. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/about/voting-rights/cvap.html Data file: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/rdo/datasets/2024/2024-cvap/CVAP_2020-2024_ACS_csv_files.zip
8. Derived estimate. Calculated by applying Washington State Department of Licensing’s Q3 2025 statewide EDL/EID adoption rate (33% of active credential holders) to the U.S. Census Bureau’s authoritative CVAP figure for CD5 (601,844, from the 2020–2024 ACS CVAP special tabulation). Calculation: 601,844 × 0.67 = approximately 403,235, rounded to 403,000. No district-level EDL/EID data is publicly available; this is a proportional estimate. See Endnotes 6 and 7 for underlying citations.
9. Native American Rights Fund, “The SAVE Act Hurts Native Voters.” https://narf.org/save-act-hurts-native-voters/
10. Brennan Center for Justice, “New SAVE Act Bills Would Still Block Millions of Americans from Voting,” February 2026. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-save-act-bills-would-still-block-millions-americans-voting
11. Washington State Department of Licensing, Enhanced Driver License (EDL) fee schedule: EDL $78 vs. standard license $54 (both 6-year credentials), a $24 premium. https://www.dol.wa.gov/driver-licenses-and-permits/enhanced-driver-license-edl
12. Native American Rights Fund, “The SAVE Act Hurts Native Voters” (Arizona proof-of-citizenship law blocked approximately 35,000 voters, with disproportionate impact on tribal lands and college campuses). https://narf.org/save-act-hurts-native-voters/
13. Schwab v. Fish, No. 20-109, Petition for Writ of Certiorari, p. 30 (citing record evidence of “30,732 suspended or cancelled applications” under Kansas’s documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement). https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-109/148881/20200728135053814_Fish%20Petition.pdf See also: Fish v. Kobach, 309 F. Supp. 3d 1048 (D. Kan. 2018). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/5765688/fish-v-kobach/
14. U.S. Government Accountability Office, Issues Related to State Voter Identification Laws, GAO-14-634 (September 2014). https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-14-634. See also: Washington State Department of Health, “Birth Records.” https://doh.wa.gov/licenses-permits-and-certificates/vital-records/birth-records
15. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, “Passport Fees”: adult passport book application fee $130; first-time DS-11 applicants also pay a $35 acceptance fee, totaling $165. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/fees.html
16. (A) Income: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey — CD5 median household income $80,002 vs. Washington state median $99,389, a gap of $19,387. https://censusreporter.org/profiles/50000US5305-congressional-district-5-wa/ (State profile: https://censusreporter.org/profiles/04000US53-washington/.) (B) DOL office access: Washington State Department of Licensing, Appointments and Locations. https://dol.wa.gov/appointments-and-locations
17. Brennan Center for Justice, “New SAVE Act Bills Would Still Block Millions of Americans from Voting,” February 2026. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-save-act-bills-would-still-block-millions-americans-voting
18. Keaton Sunchild, “Opinion: The SAVE Act — A Modern-Day Poll Tax for Indian Country,” Albuquerque Journal (Opinion). https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/opinion-the-save-act-a-modern-day-poll-tax-for-indian-country/2987049
19. Rep. Michael Baumgartner (@RepBaumgartner), post on X (formerly Twitter), February 11, 2026 (full quote).
https://x.com/RepBaumgartner/status/2021742334778749299
20. Gene Hamilton, Chapter 17 (Department of Justice), in Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, pp. 642–643. Heritage Foundation, 2023. https://www.project2025.org/playbook/
21. Approximately 50 Senate Republicans have publicly backed the legislation — including Sen. Susan Collins — giving the bill simple-majority support within the 53-seat Republican conference. The Senate’s 60-vote cloture threshold means the bill cannot advance without Democratic support. U.S. Senate, “Cloture Motions.” https://www.senate.gov/legislative/cloture.htm See also: Washington Post, “Senate Republicans push ahead on voting bill despite Democratic opposition,” February 26, 2026. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/26/voting-bill-citizenship-senate-thune-trump/
22. Orion Donovan Smith, “House Republicans Pass SAVE America Act to Require Proof of Citizenship to Vote,” The Spokesman-Review, February 11, 2026. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/feb/11/house-republicans-pass-save-america-act-to-require/
23. Fish v. Kobach, 309 F. Supp. 3d 1048 (D. Kan. 2018). Judge Robinson was appointed by President George W. Bush. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/5765688/fish-v-kobach/
24. Fish v. Kobach, 309 F. Supp. 3d 1048 (D. Kan. 2018), Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. Both the ‘tip of the iceberg’ characterization (attributed to Secretary Kobach) and Judge Robinson’s ‘icicle’ response appear in the court’s findings. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/5765688/fish-v-kobach/
25. (A) Tenth Circuit affirmance: Schwab v. Fish, No. 20-109, Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Appendix (listing Tenth Circuit opinion of April 29, 2020). https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-109/148881/20200728135053814_Fish%20Petition.pdf (B) Certiorari denied: Supreme Court Order List, December 14, 2020. https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/121420zor_8n59.pdf See also: ACLU press release confirming denial. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-comment-supreme-court-action-kansas-voting-lawsuit