March 19th, 2026Heinrich: SAVE Act is “One of the Most Extreme Voter Suppression Bills in Recent History”

Heinrich delivers Senate floor remarks opposing SAVE Act
Full video here
WASHINGTON —U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) delivered remarks on the Senate floor echoing and uplifting New Mexicans’ concerns with President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ SAVE Act, legislation that will deprive millions of American citizens of their right to vote.

VIDEO: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) delivers remarks on the Senate floor uplifting New Mexicans voices and highlighting how President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ SAVE Act will deprive American citizens of their right to vote, March 18, 2026.
“The SAVE Act does not save anyone from anything. It does not protect our freedoms. It does not protect our elections. And it does not protect our country. Instead, it actively targets all three,”said Heinrich.“Our right to vote is the foundation of every other right we have. From our right to bear arms to our right to peacefully protest, it is only through our right to vote that we can protect those freedoms and demand a government that does the same. We know this to our core. To our founding. To our genesis as a country.”
Heinrich continued,“Republicans’ SAVE Act would strip the right to vote from those who don’t already have a passport or birth certificate, or the time and money to expedite getting one. It would strip the right to vote from women who took their husband’s last name, and don’t have the means to get an affidavit or the extra documents to prove they are the same person they were at birth. And it would effectively strip voters of the ability to register to vote by mail – and the substitute amendment that was offered yesterday would eliminate most mail-in voting altogether. It is today’s poll tax...This is not a voter ID bill. This is a voter suppression bill.”
In his remarks, Heinrich uplifted New Mexicans’ voices by reading letters he has received from constituents.Find the video of Heinrich reading letters from New Mexicanshere.
Heinrich also underscored how the SAVE Act will disenfranchise rural voters, veterans, and women who have taken their husband’s last names — while eliminating voter registration drives, online registration, and automatic voter registration.Find the video of Heinrich sounding the alarm on how the SAVE Act will disenfranchise American votershere.
Heinrich provided specific examples of how President Trump and Congressional Republicans would rather sabotage and strip Americans’ right to vote than face the American people's dissatisfaction or tackle affordability.Find the video of Heinrich providing those specific exampleshere.
Additionally, Heinrich detailed his actions to combat foreign interference in our elections, secure funding to improve election security in New Mexico, and introduce legislation to fortify our election certification process and restore the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.Find the video of Heinrich detailing his actions to protect Americans’ right to vote and secure our electionshere.
Heinrich concluded his remarks by quoting former U.S. Senator for New Mexico Dennis Chavez and calling on his Republican colleagues to vote ‘no’ on the SAVE Act to safeguard the right to vote,“All American citizens should have the same right to vote as the Senators in this room. All American citizens deserve to hold the reins of this great democracy in their hands. So for those constituents, for all Americans, I say again: ‘Either we are all free, or we fail; democracy must belong to all of us.’ I call upon my colleagues in the Senate: Choose freedom. Choose democracy. And say ‘no’ to the so-called SAVE Act.”
Earlier this month, Heinrichhosted a roundtablewith New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and local election officials to discuss the current, unprecedented threats to Americans’ right to vote and New Mexico’s elections posed by Trump’s administration. Heinrichalso discussedhow devastating Republicans’ SAVE Act would be for New Mexicans.
For more information on Heinrich’s actions to protect New Mexicans’ right to vote and bolster election security, clickhere.
Background on Republicans' Legislation to Disenfranchise American Citizens from Voting:
Republicans’ SAVE Act would require New Mexicans to provide “proof of citizenship” when registering to vote. Prospective voters, or voters seeking to update their registration, would be required to travel to their local election offices in person and provide election officials with documentary proof of their citizenship. The most common document that would satisfy the SAVE Act’s requirements is a passport, which approximately 140 million Americans do not have. Alternatively, applicants would have to provide a valid, government-issued photo ID as well as a birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or another official record listing the applicant’s birthplace as the United States. Approximately 21 million Americans do not have ready access to those documents either.
Without these documents, New Mexicans would not be allowed to vote in any federal elections. And they’re ability to remedy the situation would be limited – the typical wait time to receive one of these documents is 6 weeks, but it would likely take longer if the SAVE Act was passed and millions of Americans simultaneously requested them.
And even if an applicant did have those documents at hand, the SAVE Act effectively bans automatic voter registration, nonpartisan voter registration drives, and online and mail registration, making it harder for citizens to register to cast their vote.
Importantly, even without passage of the SAVE Act, noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections — under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act of 1996 — and no state allows noncitizens to vote in federal elections.The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 also already requires voters to affirm U.S. citizenship under penalty of perjury when registering to vote.
Republicans’ attempt to pass their SAVE Act comes amid the Trump U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit to obtain unfettered access to New Mexico’s voter rolls, the DOJ’s seizure of voter rolls in Georgia and Arizona, and the Trump administration’s demand to access voter rolls in Minneapolis. And it is on top of Trump’s proposals to gut key election infrastructure funding through the appropriations process – efforts that Congress has fended off to-date but remains an ever-present threat.
For more information on Heinrich’s actions to protect New Mexicans’ right to vote and bolster election security, clickhere.
###