Lisa Murkowski Opposes Core Safeguard of the SAVE America Act
Unlike reluctant GOP colleagues, Murkowski tolerates the well-known risks of expansive mail-in voting.
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) explained why she does not support the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, an election integrity bill that has stalled in the Senate. Her opposition does not stem from an unwillingness to hold out against Democrats in a talking filibuster but from practical and ideological objections to aspects of the bill itself.
This shows Republicans have bigger problems than mustering the courage to force Democrats to hold the floor in opposition to election integrity, as many conservatives have rightly demanded. Instead, the Republicans lack ideological unity.
The Practical Challenges Murkowski Raises Are Not Insurmountable
Some of the objections Murkowski raises hold merit.
The SAVE America Act would require citizenship verification at registration—a measure Murkowski claims to support. But she notes that only six locations in Alaska could handle in-person proof-of-citizenship submission.
Alaska is a state more than twice the size of Texas, where roughly 80 percent of communities and a fifth of the population have no road access. As written, this bill would constitute a genuine challenge to in-person registration in the state.
To drive home her point, she described an 18-year-old first-time voter in the remote Bering Sea village of Savoonga who would need to fly to Nome to register—a roughly $780 round-trip ticket plus $300-plus for a hotel, pushing the cost of registering past $1,000 before groceries or a cab. A fisherman in Unalaska, she noted, would face an even longer trip, including roughly $1,500 for the round-trip flight 800 miles away to Anchorage, the site of the nearest office.
There are practical ways to mitigate these challenges without undermining the bill’s core safeguards. But Murkowski doesn’t seem too interested in exploring them.
Her opposition reveals a level of “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” lethargy that threatens to undermine election integrity nationwide to avoid forcing her state to spend a little extra money—funds she could likely get reimbursed as long as Republicans control the House of Representatives.
Alaska could rapidly designate additional in-person sites by expanding beyond the six regional election offices to include more DMV locations. It could even authorize local police stations or Alaska State Trooper posts in remote villages as satellite registration points. These facilities already exist in many areas and could handle citizenship verification after targeted training—dramatically reducing travel burdens for rural residents.
Close cooperation with tribes, mobile verification teams, or periodic fly-in clinics could also reach the most isolated communities. These steps would not eliminate every inconvenience in a state as vast as Alaska, but they would make compliance feasible.
Murkowski’s Ideological Opposition Poses a Roadblock
A talking filibuster on the SAVE America Act offers a politically strategic path forward for Republicans. This would force Democrats to hold the floor in resistance to election security measures that voters overwhelmingly support. Some Republican senators oppose this tactic, however, because of the effort required for extended floor debate rather than a rejection of the bill’s goals.
Murkowski’s opposition is different. Hers appears ideological.
She opposes the bill’s restriction on mail-in voting, which limits it to military personnel, overseas voters, and those with genuine need. This addresses vulnerabilities that have eroded confidence since the massive expansion of mail-in ballots during the COVID-19 election of 2020.
This reveals a serious blind spot of hers. Bipartisan experts have long warned about the risks of mail-in voting. For instance, the Carter-Baker Commission identified absentee and mail-in ballots as the largest potential source of fraud because of problems with signature verification, chain-of-custody breakdowns, and opportunities for abuse through ballot harvesting.
Although Alaska might not have the greatest risk of non-citizen voting or harvesting fraud, Democrat-led states have shown they are not responsible enough to pass election integrity legislation on their own. This moment demands a national solution.
President Donald Trump has rightly identified the SAVE America Act as the top legislative priority of his administration. The Republican-led Senate, however, is unlikely to match that urgency while it faces ideological dissension in its own ranks.
Murkowski’s resistance to the bill stands out because it goes beyond procedural quibbles. Unlike most of her Republican colleagues, this is not a case of lacking a spine or stamina but fundamentally disagreeing with her own party’s voter base on the existence of a problem. She simply does not see the vulnerabilities of no-excuse mail-in voting, and she does not view election integrity reform as important enough to sacrifice it.
In 2028, Alaskans will have the opportunity to replace Murkowski with a true conservative on this issue. Until then, Republicans cannot present a united front on the SAVE America Act without significantly watering it down. If, however, conservatives pick up enough seats in this year’s Senate elections, it will increase the possibility of a talking filibuster succeeding even if Murkowski joins Democrats in trying to hold the floor against it.
MORE COVERAGE FROM RESTORATION NEWS
Now, More Than Ever: Democrat Policies Put Noncitizens on New Jersey's Voter Rolls—Proof We Need the SAVE Act
Enemies Foreign and Domestic: Patrick Byrne Exposes Deep State Operations and Foreign Election Interference
Our Global Adversaries: Declassified Documents Prove Election Integrity Is More Vulnerable Than We Thought
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