U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono voiced strong opposition on Mar. 19 to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act during a speech on the Senate floor, warning that the bill would make it harder for Americans to register and vote.
The debate over the SAVE America Act is significant because it could affect millions of eligible voters by requiring in-person proof of citizenship with documents such as a birth certificate or passport before registering to vote. Hirono said this requirement would create substantial obstacles for many groups, including first-time voters, seniors, women, rural residents, and military families.
“I rise in strong opposition to the so-called SAVE America Act. What it should be called is the ‘SAVE Trump Act.’ This bill is not about protecting elections. It is about making it harder for eligible Americans to vote,” Hirono said during her remarks.
Hirono pointed out that noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal and extremely rare, citing studies from both the CATO Institute and Heritage Foundation. She highlighted that more than 140 million Americans do not have a passport and over 21 million eligible voters lack easy access to citizenship documents. The senator also noted that an estimated 69 million women do not have a birth certificate matching their current legal name, including approximately 300,000 women in Hawaii.
Reading from a letter sent by a military spouse living in Hawaii, Hirono shared concerns about how the legislation could prevent military families from registering to vote due to frequent moves or lack of access to required documents: “The SAVE Act would have disastrous impacts on military families like mine… The SAVE America Act would cut families like mine out of the ability to participate in our own democracy, the very democracy we have committed to protect.”
Hirono warned that these proposed changes are part of broader efforts she described as attempts by Republicans to limit voter participation rather than address election security: “Republicans know they can’t win over voters with their policies, so they’re trying to limit who gets to vote.”
Senator Hirono has served on several Senate committees including Judiciary, Armed Services, Energy and Natural Resources, Veterans’ Affairs, and Small Business and Entrepreneurship. She assists Hawaiians with federal agencies and casework according to her official website. She became the first Asian American woman and first Buddhist elected to the U.S. Senate according to her official website, after immigrating from Japan as a child with her mother according to her official website and serving previously in the U.S. House of Representatives according to her official website. She holds degrees from University of Hawaii at Mānoa and Georgetown University Law Center according to her official website.
Concluding her speech, Hirono reflected on past barriers such as poll taxes and literacy tests used against minority voters: “We’ve come a long way since the era of Jim Crow, but this bill is a chilling reminder that the battles we thought we had won don’t stay won. Eternal vigilance is required of all of us,” she said.
