02/14/2026
We have been reading the fine print of the new "SAVE Act" (H.R. 22), and we are deeply concerned. We want a secure voting system just like anyone else. We should make it simple for American citizens to vote and complicated for non-citizens. But as it’s written, this bill makes it expensive and exhausting for legal citizens just to stay registered.
Here is the reality for us in Oklahoma:
Since our OK REAL IDs don’t state citizenship on the card, we’re forced to buy a Passport for $165. People are struggling right now, we shouldn't have to pay $165 just to have the "right" ID to register.
If you don't have a passport, you have to use a birth certificate. But because many have been married, widowed, divorced, married again, names don’t match compared to the birth certificate. Under Section 2(f), I’d have to pay for a "paperwork trail" of marriage licenses, divorce decrees, death certificates to link them. In some OK counties, those are $50.00 each.
Under Section 6(e), if you register by mail, you have to show these documents in person to an official. For those in rural areas, that means a 2-to-4-hour round trip drive just to prove we are citizens.
Even with a tribal card (like a Cherokee our 'blue card'), Section 2(a)(4) of this bill only accepts your tribal ID as proof of citizenship if it lists your place of birth.
Most of our cards don't. Even if your card shows your maiden name and proves your citizenship to the Tribe, you'd still have to go through the state or federal government and pay for a Passport or a Birth Certificate. It's an unnecessary hurdle for the people who have been here the longest.
It doesn’t have to be this way. If Oklahoma followed the lead of states like Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Washington, they would offer Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (EDL). Those IDs actually prove citizenship right on the card. If we had those, the Real ID license would be all the proof we need.
Instead, this bill creates a "pay-to-play" system that hits the poorest and most rural citizens the hardest. We should secure our elections by giving citizens the right tools, not by charging them hundreds of dollars for paperwork and gas.
Read the bill for yourself here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/22/text/ih
Call your Senators. Senator Markwayne Mullin Senator James Lankford
