Trump's attacks on mail-in voting may hurt his own supporters in Washington

WASHINGTON — Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to restrict mail-in voting.

He has issued executive orders, pushed legislation and battled lawsuits throughout his second term that would upend vote-by-mail systems in Washington state and across the nation.

Much of that attention has been paid to the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require people to present documentation that proves they are U.S. citizens to register to vote in federal elections, and present ID again to cast their ballots. If passed, the law would render Washington's vote-by-mail system defunct, according to the state's top elections officials, forcing voters to instead travel to voting centers.

Trump has promised the SAVE Act would guarantee the midterms" for the GOP, but in Washington state, the legislation — and any effort to curb people's ability to vote by mail or by drop box — would hurt many Republican voters.

Residents in the central, rural swath of Washington would likely be forced to travel farther than most others in the state to cast their ballots if such restrictions come into effect, according to a Seattle Times analysis.

The Times calculated the straight-line distances — not driving distances — between the home addresses of 99% of the 5 million active Washington voters registered as of March, and the locations of every voting drop box and voting center in the state from the 2024 general election — sites that are unlikely to change for this year's midterm elections, according to the Washington secretary of state's office.

According to voting-rights advocates, rural voters across the nation would be stymied by mail-in voting restrictions like the SAVE Act. Across the country, rural voters are more likely to be Republican, less likely to have citizenship documents and, as is the case in Washington state, often face longer round-trip driving times to their nearest election offices.

While the effort has had the support of most Republicans, some key Republicans have opposed it — or tired of it. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who opposes the act, has for example said that in the remote stretches of her state, some voters may be forced to take a flight to vote.

Trump has long claimed without evidence that widespread voter fraud, particularly by undocumented immigrants, cost him the 2020 election. The SAVE Act, he has argued, would ensure only U.S. citizens have a say in federal elections.

The bill has remained at a standstill for weeks; some Republicans unsuccessfully introduced an amendment on Thursday to squeeze the act's core components into other legislation. Trump has said the act is his No. 1 priority, claimed he would not sign any other legislation until Congress passes the bill, and vowed to withhold endorsements from anyone who votes against it. He dubbed it "one of the most important and consequential pieces of legislation in the history of Congress."

Noncitizen voting is already illegal in federal elections, and voter fraud and noncitizen voting is rare.

The most recent iteration of the SAVE America Act would require people to present proof of citizenship — such as a passport, birth certificate or naturalization documents — to register to vote. To cast a ballot, people would also need to show certain government-issued IDs. This means in Washington state, which has used vote-by-mail for every election since 2012, voters would need to include a photocopy of their ID with their ballot before mailing it or leaving it in a drop box.

At issue, the state's top elections officials say, is a simple problem: Many Americans don't have access to a photocopy machine.

"It'll effectively eliminate vote-by-mail, because the voters themselves would have great difficulty in being able to make the copy necessary to provide to the election official," said Stuart Holmes, Washington state elections director with the Washington secretary of state's office.

"It may be more convenient or less costly to just go in-person to vote," Holmes said.

According to a Times analysis, some of the greatest impact may be seen in Washington state's 4th Congressional District, a mostly Republican stretch of Central Washington. Nearly 60% of voters in this district voted for Trump, and Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse, who has backed the SAVE America Act, has represented the district since 2015.

The nearest voting center in this region is an average of 7.7 miles from a voter's residence, according to The Times' analysis. This is the second-lengthiest average distance between voters and their nearest voter center among all 10 congressional districts in Washington, eclipsed only by the 8th Congressional District, represented by Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier, who has voted against the bill.

In Schrier's district, the nearest voting center is an average of 9.7 miles from a voter's residence.

Voters in Southwest Washington's 3rd Congressional District — a swing district that largely voted for Trump while electing a Democrat, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, to the House — would see major impact as well.

In the 3rd Congressional District, the nearest voting center is an average of 7.4 miles away from a voter's residence.

The inconvenience for voters could be critical in the purple district as Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican state Sen. John Braun face off in a race that will help determine whether Democrats retake the House.

Gluesenkamp Perez last year voted for an earlier version of the SAVE America Act; this year, she voted against it, stating it would needlessly hinder voters. "Call me a perfectionist but if your legislation requires government to provide free photocopy services, you have not written a good piece of legislation," she said on X.

According to the Times analysis, the congressional districts with the shortest average distance between a voter's address and nearest voting center are some of the most Democratic. The four least-affected congressional districts — 1st, 7th, 9th and 10th — are in the Puget Sound region where Democrats won by large margins in 2024.

Nearly all of Washington's federal lawmakers have condemned the SAVE America Act and Trump's various attempts to chip away at mail-in voting, as Democrats worry Trump's attempts to control election processes will hurt Democratic turnout.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has repeatedly said such efforts would disenfranchise countless Americans and create a "deterrence to people voting."

"It is going to cost them time and money," she said in a February floor speech in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Newhouse and U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, have said the SAVE America Act is a commonsense voter ID law. Newhouse's office declined to comment on the potential outsized impact on voters in his district.

The impacts of Trump's long-sought restrictions on mail-in voting ripple beyond the burden of lengthier travel for rural voters, Holmes added.

Young people and voters of color are less likely to have the necessary identification; people who have changed their names — such as married women — may have trouble presenting documentation in which their names match; tribal identification cards may not qualify as proper identification to vote.

"If it carries forward as written, it would have a tremendous impact on basically every segment of the population," Holmes said.

For Charles Ross, who has served as the Yakima County auditor for 11 years, overseeing elections in the heart of Washington's 4th Congressional District, any changes to the state's voting system before the midterms "would be a very heavy lift," he said.

"We would have to change the way we do the operations," he said. "You can't do an election where everyone has to come to a voting center, and put out any kind of meaningful result the next day."

If people's primary concerns are noncitizens voting, Ross said, "I have yet to come across a case where that has been the case.