LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada's senior senator on Tuesday denounced an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March, as well as a Republican election reform bill pending in the Senate, saying they would disenfranchise legitimate voters.
Republicans contend the bills are necessary to prevent non-citizens from casting ballots in federal elections, and to give an additional measure of security to voting. Plus, they say, they are popular with Americans across party lines.
But Cortez Masto said the rules would hurt especially people who live in rural areas, on tribal lands and people who lack documents to prove their citizenship, which under the new rules would be required to register or cast a ballot.
WATCH | Cortez Masto denounces Republican voting changes
"To me, nothing is more important than protecting Nevadans' voting rights, and the right to come out and vote in a way that is safe and secure for them," she said. "I have been hearing constantly from worried Nevadans across our state about President Trump and Republican leadership efforts to overhaul our elections."
The overhaul includes the SAVE Act, which passed the House in April but is now stalled in the Senate, where Democrats are united in opposition and Republicans lack the votes to overcome a filibuster. It also includes Trump's March 31 executive order, which would require a national list of eligible voters and ban the post office from delivering mail-in ballots to those the government contends are ineligible.
"We're not going to let this administration silence and disenfranchise Americans' votes and their voices," Cortez Masto said. "The reality, though, of this bill and why it is so bad, because quite honestly, it is a solution in search of a problem that has, quite honestly, been created by this administration."
Cortez Masto — a former Nevada attorney general who in that role served on the state's election integrity task force — said instances of non-citizen voting are extremely rare. (The conservative Heritage Foundation has identified just 11 cases of all types of fraud in Nevada from 2011 to 2021, a period in which more than 5.4 million votes were cast. Some Republicans suggest that the numbers are higher, however, and that investigations of fraud cases could be more vigorous.)
Cortez Masto said the real motive behind the new voting rules was political.
"So then you've got to question why Donald Trump and the Republicans in control are pushing this if it's not really a problem and the answer is very clear," Cortez Masto said. "It is to put barriers in front of voters that they don't want getting to the polls who may vote against them."
In response to the news conference, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement, "Only a radical Democrat like Senator Catherine Cortez Masto would oppose commonsense election integrity measures such as requiring photo ID to vote – something 90 percent of Americans support.
"The President wants to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat, which is unacceptable for Democrats in Congress for some indefensible reason," the statement reads.
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