Sen. Maria Cantwell, left, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey and Nancy Halvorson, LWVWA board member discuss the threats to democracy posed by the SAVE America Act.

By Dee Anne Finken, Communications Portfolio Director, LWV of Washington

With former Clark County League president Nancy Halvorson and others at her side, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell was in Vancouver Wednesday morning to explain how costly the passage of the SAVE America Act would be for Americans.

“Time, money and maybe even their vote,” Cantwell said at a news conference in the Clark County Elections Office in downtown Vancouver.

Proclaiming the SAVE America Act as misleading and misguided, Cantwell said she would issue a snapshot report in the next day or two detailing the significant harms the bill would create.

But during Wednesday’s brief conference, Cantwell said immediate action is needed in light of President Trump’s insistence that massive fraud exists, necessitating the legislation.

Cantwell invited the League to participate as representative of an organization recognized widely for its commitment to voting and election security. As of press time, Sen. Cantwell had plans to hold another news conference in Seattle on Thursday, to which the League has also been invited. Seattle King County League President Barbara Tengtio is scheduled to speak at that event.

The House of Representatives passed the SAVE America Act earlier this month; it is currently under consideration in the Senate.

“We need to fight back,” Cantwell said, adding the bill poses grave harm, particularly for senior citizens, rural voters and working parents, as they would be most hard-pressed to produce the additional documents the act calls for them to produce.   

The bill also would significantly affect individuals who take their spouse’s name when they marry. 

Numerous sources estimate more than 21 million Americans would be unable to present the additional required documents, including marriage certificates and passports.  

What’s more, the bill would take effect immediately, Cantwell said.

Both Cantwell and Halvorson said Trump’s calls to nationalize elections are particularly onerous. 

Halvorson, who served as Co-president of the Clark League from 2020-21; President from 2021-23 and again 2024-25, said, “Let’s be clear:  The SAVE America Act is about restricting access to the ballot and deciding who gets to participate in our democracy. And the League stands in resolute opposition to assaults on our democracy.”

Halvorson used this analogy to address the claims about voter fraud: “A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than they are to commit voter fraud.”  

Cantwell said she was drawn to speak in the Vancouver-Portland area because of the area’s experience with threats to voting. Three ballot boxes in the region were set afire in October 2024. 

Cantwell said federal involvement in elections, particularly by the FBI, should be limited to investigating incidents like that.

Also speaking at the news conference were Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey and the Rev. Michael Jones Jr., vice president of the NAACP, Clark County chapter.  
“This is not just a political issue,” Jones said.  “It’s a civil rights issue.” He pointed to the disenfranchisement that resulted from poll taxes and other efforts in the 1950s and ‘60s to block Black Americans from voting.

Halvorson, who is a member of LWVWA board, emphasized the League’s nonpartisan status and reiterated that protecting the right to vote, granted by the U.S. Constitution, is neither solely a Republican or Democratic concern.