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

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 spendat least $35.7 millionthis 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 actuallycostAmericans: 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:
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 hasindicated his intent to open debateon the bill this week – it would impose new barriers to voting:
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:
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 fullHERE.
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 anerror 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 reportHERE.
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: