Congressional Republicans are pushing ahead with a measure to overhaul the nation’s elections in a move that many have warned would effectively bar millions of legitimate voters from casting ballots, and Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan is a fan.
The junior Republican senator said in remarks to the Alaska Legislature this week that he is a full supporter of the SAVE Act, a measure that would institute strict identification requirements to vote and give the federal government greater sway to direct state and local elections, despite the fact that the voter fraud it’s ostensibly meant to tackle is exceedingly rare.
“You know, I think voting should be easy, and cheating should be hard,” he said, in a limited news conference following his remarks to lawmakers. “Now, I don’t think we have a big voter challenge in terms of cheating in Alaska, but for the country, there’s a place in the country where this is an important issue. This is not focused on disenfranchising Alaska voters.”
But that’s expected to be the outcome.
Voting advocates warn that the bill’s requirement that people prove their citizenship with a birth certificate or passport imposes an undue, and sometimes expensive, burden on voting. And of particular worry for rural communities, people would also be required to present those documents in person to register to vote — a logistical nightmare for remote communities where air is the only form of travel to election offices.
“This is creating incredible barriers to voting,” said Michelle Sparck, director of Get Out the Native Vote and member of The Alaska Current board, told Alaska Public Media after the measure passed out of the House with Alaska Republican Rep. Nick Begich’s full-throated support. “It’s just asking way too much of a lot of demographics and pockets in the state.”
Voting access is already a mixed bag in Alaska, where the state has routinely fumbled voting operations in rural areas, with some polling places opening late or not at all on election day. By-mail voting, the primary method of voting for many in Alaska, is also a fraught process, with Alaska Native and other non-white areas of the state facing exceedingly high rejection rates compared to other parts of the state.
Sullivan was dismissive of those concerns on Wednesday, arguing that carve-outs for military voters and tribal IDs to stand in place of birth certificates, passports and other more onerous forms of ID addressed most of the issues.
“I’m confident that this is not going to disenfranchise anyone,” he said. “To have people show a proof of citizenship when they register to vote is something that I think is a common-sense reform, but you can do it in Alaska in a way that doesn’t disenfranchise anyone.”
However, he didn’t touch on concerns that it would create additional barriers for women whose married names don’t match their birth certificates, nor did he address the geographic barriers for Alaskans. He also didn’t address the concerns over the bill handing the federal government an outsized role in deciding who can and cannot vote. Last week, a report by The Alaska Beacon uncovered a secretive agreement that invites the feds to determine who’s eligible to vote in the state.
Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is the lone member of the delegation and one of the few congressional Republicans to oppose the measure. She called it federal overreach, opposition to which Republicans have traditionally championed as a core value. But with a high-stakes 2026 election and voters who have quickly soured on the second Trump administration, Republicans are pushing for ways to stay in power.
Murkowski’s opposition leaves the measure far short of the 60 votes needed to pass under the current Senate’s filibuster rules, but there’s been talk of changing the rules.
Sullivan said even for him, that would be a bridge too far.
“The filibuster? No, I don’t support that,” he said, noting that the filibuster has long been a useful tool for Alaska in Congress. “I have been opposed to the to changing the filibuster.”
Still, in the big picture, when asked why he supports a measure that addresses an issue that even he conceded isn’t an issue, Sullivan said it’s ultimately not his job to be singularly focused on Alaska’s interests.
“I think having, you know, an ID requirement that makes sure that the people who are voting in our country are Americans, is not unreasonable,” he said. “Even though it’s not a big issue here, it is a big issue in other parts of the country. And I’m a Senator for Alaska, but I’m also a Senator for America.”