Carol Khalil is a lawyer who was born and raised in Aroostook County and now lives in Cumberland County. 

In November 2025, Maine voters resoundingly rejected a referendum that would have restricted access to voting. The message was clear: Mainers value secure elections and they do not want new barriers placed between citizens and the ballot.

It is surprising, then, to see Sen. Susan Collins expressing support for the federal SAVE Act, now before the Senate after having passed the House. The “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act” would require people registering to vote in federal elections to present in-person documentary proof of U.S. citizenship — such as a passport, a birth certificate or naturalization papers.

Notably, a driver’s license, military ID or tribal ID would not qualify as documentary proof. States would be required to verify that documentation before processing a voter’s
registration. But no credible evidence has demonstrated widespread noncitizen voting, and the integrity of Maine’s elections is not in doubt.

The bill would impose unnecessary and costly administrative and procedural barriers to the exercise of a constitutional right: voting. Those barriers would not be felt evenly.

Many Mainers do not possess a current passport, and recent staffing cuts and administration actions are making the process of getting a passport more difficult. Replacing a lost birth certificate can take time, money and travel, especially in rural areas.

Voters who have changed their names over the course of their lives, including many married women, would face documentation mismatches requiring additional steps. Disabled voters and older Mainers may face additional logistical burdens in producing documents in person.

Either oblivious to the actual requirements in the text of the bill or obfuscating, Sen. Collins recently defended her support of the SAVE Act by minimizing its impact, stating: “Having people provide an ID at the polls, just as they have to do before boarding an airplane, checking into a hotel, or buying an alcoholic beverage, is a simple reform that will improve the security of our federal elections and will help give people more confidence in the results.”

I don’t know what hotels Sen. Collins is staying at, but I’ve never stayed in one that requires my birth certificate or passport. I use my driver’s license to buy alcohol or fly (again, not an acceptable form of ID in the SAVE Act).

Importantly, unlike voting, none of the activities Sen. Collins cites are rights protected by the Constitution. Any federal laws pertaining to voting should be protective of that right, not restrictive. And it’s disingenuous to suggest that the SAVE Act is about protecting election integrity.

Ironically, the president of the United States has been attempting since 2020 to call election integrity into question, but his numerous lawsuits have only succeeded in proving that there is no widespread voter fraud in this country.

Reasonable people can and should debate federal policy, but the SAVE Act is a solution in
search of a problem and Mainers have just months ago expressed a clear rejection of barriers to voting. This isn’t about partisanship. It’s about listening. Sen. Collins is up for reelection this year. Full disclosure, I voted for Senator Collins in my first election nearly 30 years ago. It seems that she has been in the Senate for so long that she has forgotten who she represents.

As Congress considers changes to federal voting law, I hope the Maine delegation remembers that democracy works best when the people’s voice is respected.