Who Voted Against the SAVE Act? 4 Republicans, Democrats, and House

In the Senate vote that decided the bill’s fate, four Republicans voted against the SAVE Act alongside every Democrat: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Their votes, cast on June 4, 2026, on a Lindsey Graham amendment to attach the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act to a budget reconciliation package, killed the measure 48 to 50, twelve short of the 60 needed.¹ In the House, opposition came almost entirely from Democrats, with no Republican voting against the bill in any of its three passages between 2024 and 2026.

The Four Republican Senators Who Voted No

The four Republicans who broke with their party gave overlapping but distinct reasons for opposing the Graham amendment.

Mitch McConnell has long treated election administration as a state responsibility. A former counsel to McConnell described the bill as federalizing elections “in a way that Republicans have long opposed.”¹

Thom Tillis said he generally supported the SAVE Act’s goals but rejected the procedural vehicle, calling the amendment a “show vote” designed to send a political message rather than enact law. Senate sources told reporters that President Trump had demanded the vote specifically to identify which Republicans would oppose it, even though it had no realistic path to 60 votes.¹

Susan Collins voted against the Graham amendment but had separately voted for a similar amendment offered by Senator Mike Lee during the same vote-a-rama session, indicating her objection was tied to how this particular vehicle was structured rather than to the underlying idea.¹

Lisa Murkowski’s Detailed Case Against the Bill

Murkowski built the longest public case for a no vote, arguing on the Senate floor that the bill would strip the vote from thousands of Alaskans who are citizens. She noted that 83 percent of Alaska’s communities are off the road system, and the state has only six regional Division of Elections offices where a voter could deliver documents in person. A voter from Savoonga would spend at least $1,000 on flights, hotels, and food to get to Nome; a one-way flight from Unalaska to Anchorage could exceed that on its own.²

She estimated that roughly half of Alaskans lack a passport, that many rural elders do not have a birth certificate, and that obtaining these documents takes one to two months and costs $30 for a birth certificate and around $130 for a passport. About 155,000 women in Alaska have names that no longer match their birth certificates because of marriage or other changes. The bill’s restrictions on no-excuse absentee voting would add to the strain: more than 50,000 Alaskans voted by mail in 2024 to avoid being stranded by winter storms.² Of roughly 29,000 Alaskans who registered to vote in 2024, she estimated about 25,000 would have run into problems under the bill.³

Why Democrats Voted Against It

Nearly every Democrat in both chambers voted no across all three House passages and the Senate vote. Their case rested on three points.

First, noncitizen voting is already illegal and vanishingly rare. A Brennan Center study examining 23.5 million votes across 42 jurisdictions found suspected noncitizen voting at 0.0001 percent of the total, with 40 of the 42 jurisdictions reporting zero known incidents. A Heritage Foundation database identified 23 instances over roughly 20 years.⁴

Second, the documentation burden would fall on eligible citizens. Research cited by the Brennan Center estimated that more than 21 million American citizens lack easy access to documents such as a passport or birth certificate, and an additional 2.6 million lack any form of government-issued photo ID.⁵ Senator Alex Padilla, who led Senate Democratic opposition, called the underlying rationale a “Big Lie” used as a pretext for restrictive policies.⁶

Third, Democrats warned about voter roll purges. The bill would require states to hand voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security for citizenship verification. Alabama’s 2024 purge of more than 3,000 voters swept up over 2,000 lawfully registered citizens, and an earlier Kansas law with similar proof-of-citizenship requirements blocked 31,000 eligible citizens from registering, or 12 percent of applicants.⁷

The House Votes: Nearly All Democrats, No Republicans

The House passed the SAVE Act three times, and in every vote the opposition was almost entirely Democratic. No Republican voted no in any of the three passages.

On July 10, 2024, the House passed the original H.R. 8281 by 221 to 198. Five Democrats voted in favor: Henry Cuellar of Texas, Donald Davis of North Carolina, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington. Every other Democrat voted against it.⁸

On April 10, 2025, the House passed H.R. 22 by 220 to 208. Four Democrats crossed over: Ed Case of Hawaii, Cuellar, Golden, and Gluesenkamp Perez.⁹ In February 2026, the House passed the bill a third time by a narrower 218 to 213, with Cuellar as the only Democrat voting yes.¹⁰

The Democrats who voted yes explained the vote in their own terms. Gluesenkamp Perez said voting “is a sacred right belonging only to American citizens,” while acknowledging the bill had “deeply flawed provisions” and stood “no chance of passage in the Senate due to the filibuster.”¹¹ Golden said “American elections are for Americans” and called the proof-of-citizenship requirement “common sense,” pointing to protocols in the bill for voters with document discrepancies such as name changes.¹²

Where the Bill Stands Now

As of mid-2026, the SAVE Act has not become law. It has cleared the House three times but has never overcome the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, and the June 2026 attempt to attach it to reconciliation failed with the four Republican no votes. Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged there was not “broad enough appetite among his Republican colleagues” to circumvent the filibuster to pass the bill.¹³ Supporters have said they plan to keep pursuing the bill’s provisions through other legislative and executive channels.¹⁴

1
The Hill. SAVE America Act Fails Senate Vote
2
U.S. Senate, Office of Senator Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski Speaks Out Against SAVE America Act on Senate Floor
3
Alaska Beacon. Federal SAVE Act Risks Denying Thousands of Alaskans the Ability to Vote, Murkowski Says
4
Migration Policy Institute. Noncitizen Voting in US Elections
5
BBC. SAVE Act: Democrats Argue Legislation Would Disenfranchise Voters
6
U.S. Senate, Office of Senator Alex Padilla. Padilla Leads Charge to Successfully Block Another SAVE America Act Push
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The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Civil Rights Groups Oppose the SAVE Act
8
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Roll Call 345, 118th Congress
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Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Roll Call 102, 119th Congress
10
Politico. SAVE America Act Passes House
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Kitsap Sun. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez Joins US House Republicans in SAVE Act Vote
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KGW. SAVE Act: Democrat Gluesenkamp Perez Vote Pass Election Voter
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NPR. SAVE Act Senate Vote Trump
14
Vote.org. The SAVE Act