{"id":478564,"date":"2026-04-06T12:57:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=478564"},"modified":"2026-04-06T12:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:57:26","slug":"press-release-alaska-federation-of-natives-objects-to-controversial-voting-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2026\/04\/06\/press-release-alaska-federation-of-natives-objects-to-controversial-voting-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Release: Alaska Federation of Natives objects to controversial voting bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
Alaska Federation of Natives Raises Concerns About SAVE America Act<\/div>\r\n
Monday, April 6, 2026<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe following is the text of an April 6, 2026, press release from the Alaska Federation of Natives<\/a>.<\/em>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska, has membership that includes 192 federally recognized tribes, 11 Alaska Native corporations, 152 Alaska Village corporations, and 11 tribal non-profit organizations, shares deep concerns regarding the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, currently being debated in the United States Senate.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAFN is an advocate for removing voting barriers that disproportionately impact rural and Alaska Native communities. From limited access to in-person voting locations to language access challenges to logistical barriers unique to remote communities, we have consistently worked to ensure that Native voices are not silenced by technical or structural obstacles. The SAVE Act, currently under consideration, would move in the opposite direction, imposing new requirements that will disenfranchise eligible voters and recreate the very barriers our communities have fought for decades to dismantle.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

IMPACT ON ALASKA VOTERS<\/div>\r\n\r\nThe SAVE Act would require every American to present documentary proof of citizenship \u2014 such as a passport or birth certificate \u2014 in person at a designated election office in order to register to vote in federal elections. For rural and Alaska Native communities, this mandate would pose serious, potentially insurmountable challenges.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAlaska has only six in-person election offices, located primarily along the Railbelt in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Nome, Wasilla, and Kenai. Eighty percent of Alaska’s communities\u2014home to a significant share of our Alaska Native population\u2014are not on the road system. For a resident of a remote village, complying with this law could require purchasing a plane ticket, securing lodging, and taking days away from work and family\u2014at a personal cost of hundreds to thousands of dollars\u2014simply to register to vote.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAFN also notes that the legislation effectively invalidates Tribal IDs as standalone proof of citizenship. Because Tribal IDs do not include place of birth or citizenship status on their face, Alaska Native voters would need to produce an additional document\u2014such as a certified birth certificate\u2014to meet the bill’s requirements. In Alaska, a birth certificate costs $60 and can take one to two months to process. For many of our Elders and community members, especially those whose records were incompletely kept in earlier generations, obtaining such documents may be impossible.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe bill would also eliminate Alaska’s widely used systems of automatic voter registration through the Permanent Fund Dividend application and online registration\u2014systems that have been essential tools for Alaska Native voter participation. More than 40,000 Alaskans voted by mail in the last presidential election, a practice the bill would also severely restrict.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

A SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM<\/div>\r\n\r\nAFN recognizes that the integrity of our elections is a shared value. But the SAVE Act addresses a problem that does not exist at any meaningful scale. Noncitizen voting is already illegal and punishable by severe criminal penalties. In Alaska, a public records request revealed only 70 possible cases of noncitizen voting since 2015 \u2014 roughly seven per year in a state of more than 700,000 people. All federal voter registration forms already require registrants to affirm their citizenship under penalty of perjury.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nStates that have implemented similar documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements\u2014including Kansas and Arizona\u2014have demonstrated that such laws block far more eligible citizens than noncitizens. In Kansas, a proof-of-citizenship requirement blocked over 30,000 eligible citizens from registering in just two years, with state officials conceding in court that more than 99% of those affected were U.S. citizens. Arizona’s law has blocked approximately 35,000 voters from participating in state and local elections, with a disproportionate impact on voters living on Tribal lands.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAlaska\u2019s election system is not perfect, and administering elections in rural Alaska presents unique logistical challenges. Still, the state has made meaningful progress in improving language access, strengthening coordination with Tribal governments, and tailoring systems such as Ranked Choice Voting and vote-by-mail to our geography. These proposed federal acts would set that progress back and undermine ongoing work.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nRather than imposing new barriers, Congress should strengthen access to the ballot\u2014particularly in rural Alaska\u2014by supporting early and absentee voting and improving the reliability of mail. Alaska\u2019s Legislature recently passed SB 64, which takes practical steps in that direction. The bill recognizes Tribal IDs for voting, establishes a rural liaison to coordinate with tribes and expand access, creates a ballot curing process to reduce rejections, provides prepaid postage, and improves ballot tracking and transparency.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThese are Alaska-driven solutions that reflect real conditions on the ground. Reliable mail service remains essential for civic engagement, yet in many rural communities, it is still not a reality. Congress should build on efforts like SB 64\u2014not move in the opposite direction.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

ABOUT AFN<\/div>\r\nThe Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska. AFN’s membership includes 192 federally recognized Tribes, 152 village corporations, 11 regional corporations, and 11 regional nonprofit and Tribal consortiums. AFN works to advance the political, economic, and cultural interests of Alaska Natives across the state. Learn more at nativefederation.org<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

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