Heidi Engelhart, National Committeewoman for the South Dakota Republican Party, joins Dave Roetman after a Republican National Committee meeting where members voted to hold a midterm convention, with the time and place not yet released. Engelhart then walks through three federal election bills: the SAVE Act, requiring proof of identity and citizenship to register, which passed the House and sits in the Senate; the SAVE America Act, sponsored in the Senate by Mike Lee, which adds photo ID at the polls, limits some mail-in voting and requires cleaner voter rolls; and the Make Elections Great Again Act, which would also require auditable paper ballots and ban ballot harvesting and ranked choice voting. She cites polling support for voter ID, addresses Republican concerns about REAL ID and federal overreach, and asks listeners to call their senators and pray for Senator Thune on the filibuster.
Topics: Republican National Committee, midterm convention, SAVE Act, SAVE America Act, Make Elections Great Again Act, voter ID, proof of citizenship, voter roll maintenance, filibuster, Senator Thune, congress.gov
“The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.” - Article 1, Section 4 of the US Constitution
Voice of the Plains - Heidi Engelhart’s substack
H.R.22 - SAVE Act - This bill requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.
H.R.7296 - SAVE America Act - To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require proof of United States citizenship to register an individual to vote in elections for Federal office, and for other purposes.
H.R.7300 - Make Elections Great Again Act -
Full transcript
About this transcript: It was machine-transcribed in-house and then edited for readability. Filler words and false starts are removed, and the meaning is unchanged. Timestamps are approximate.
[00:00]
Dave Roetman: This is the Making Waves Podcast. My name is Dave Roetman. We’re here with Heidi Engelhart, National Committeewoman for the South Dakota Republican Party. Welcome, Heidi.
Heidi Engelhart: Thank you, Dave. Glad to be here.
Dave Roetman: You were just at an RNC meeting. Because they have meetings every quarter. Well, technically it’s three times a year. But they have quarterly meetings. And what was the big topic of conversation at the RNC meeting?
Heidi Engelhart: The big topic this time was our bringing in a midterm convention. So we had to all join together to vote in a midterm convention. This is just basically a ceremonial convention. There is no need for states to have to worry about changing bylaws. The RNC chairman will decide the delegates and how this all works and who attends. Where it’s going to be.
None of that has been released, so time, place has not been released, but it’s going to be a huge celebration for the victories that President Trump has brought to America already. It’ll be a fun To get people to the polls so that they know the importance of getting everybody out so that President Trump agenda goes through the next two years.
Dave Roetman: That makes a lot of sense because the national conventions are normally only when we have a president up for election. They actually are quite a big deal and they get a lot of attention and they do move the needle. More people will tune in, find out what’s going on and if you have a big enthusiastic convention that translates into more votes in November.
Heidi Engelhart: Right. It sets the pace and it gets people excited and they want to get involved and they want to move the Republican principles forward. And yeah, it’s a great thing to get people out to vote, get them excited.
Dave Roetman: Awesome. I look forward to that. You also have been talking to a number of people. You’ve been talking to our national delegation and you’ve been discussing issues. One of the things in the news and what’s in the Congress and the Senate right now is an election legislation and specifically the SAVE Act and the SAVE America Act and there’s some confusion about what these are and there’s more of them so I mean more than just two so could you tell us a little bit about them?
Heidi Engelhart: So there are three main election security bills going through Washington, three that are gaining attention. One of the things is because their names are so familiar, that people were in the beginning quite confused on what was going on. We had the SAVE Act to begin with, and now we have the SAVE America Act, and then the other one that’s gaining some notoriety is the Make Elections Great Again Act. All three do something different.
There’s two that are very similar, but the last one covers other areas. I can go over those with you. One thing that I want to point out when it comes to our federal government and our elections is the federal government can, Congress can create law to regulate our federal elections. I’m just going to read that. I’m going to read that right from our Constitution. So it’s article one, Section 4, the times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed by each state by the legislature thereof but the congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations except as to the places of choosing senators which that last part the amendment 17 took care of that one but so they can create law to regulate our federal elections so that’s what these bills cover our federal.
Dave Roetman: And that has been a controversy because people are saying that the federal government should not be holding our elections, which I agree with, but we’re talking about federal elections. That’d be the president and the U.S. Senators and U.S. Congressmen, and they can provide, or they can impose by law, regulations. On these elections.
Heidi Engelhart: Got it. Right there in the Constitution. Right there from our Constitution. Okay, so I will start with the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act has been around for a little while now and it is sitting over in the Senate. Now the SAVE Act covers voter ID when you register to vote. That’s basically what that one covers. So it’s just kind of plain and simple, short and sweet, 28 pages, easy to read through.
[05:00]
Ask people to go in and read these bills so that they also know they’re short the font is large so thank goodness for that but yeah and they can go to congress.gov and look for these they can put in the save act save america act make elections great again act but they should have the 119th congress or if you put in the save act you’ll find out how many save acts there are out there and have been for several years.
So yeah, so the key provisions of the SAVE Act and that is to show voter ID when registering to vote. There are five forms of that you can show. And that is a driver’s license with real ID, a driver’s license without real ID, US passport, tribal identification, and military ID. And with military ID, thus you need to also prove that you were born here in the United States. So it’s not just one thing.
It’s there’s different forms that can be used and the purpose of this is really just to strengthen our elections that only U.S. Citizens are voting in our elections so that one is sitting over in the senate.
Dave Roetman: That was passed by the house already.
Heidi Engelhart: Right. So, this one has gone all the way through the House. And it is over in the Senate. And it has been quite a while since that one has been sitting there. A major there’s talk of needing to remove the filibuster whatever but if we even went to a majority vote right now we are lacking on that so that’s where that one sits so then we have the SAVE America Act And this one has been extremely popular this last week.
Very, very, very similar to the SAVE Act. Correct. But it does add a different aspect. And I think this is where people were getting confused on this, but the SAVE Act, this bill amends the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to impose stricter federal requirements for voter registration and voting in federal elections. This one You’d have to bring voter ID to register to vote. You have to have, or sorry, you have to show identification to register to vote and you have to show photo ID.
When you show up at the polls to vote. And this also, this is going to restrict some mail-in voting and other processes like that. And then it also requires states to clean up their voter rolls. This is the one, it’s past the House. It just passed the House. I think it was Wednesday night. And now it is sitting over in the Senate. And this is the one that we’re hearing so much about now.
This one, Senator Mike Lee is the sponsor in the Senate. And we have 49 co-sponsors. And that’s so far where it’s sitting. Now, what I had heard this morning is there’s a chance that Senator Susan Collins could come on to this, sign on to this. I don’t know for sure. I’m just saying what was on the news this morning, one aspect. And then we would have 50. We have to overcome that filibuster the way things stand right now.
So we actually need 60. But even if we took this down to a majority vote, we’re sitting. We don’t necessarily have that support yet. So that’s where that one is sitting. It’s getting a lot of popularity. Call your senators. Let them know how you feel about this. Moving this through. Voters need to take an active role in that. Otherwise. And you know people should.
Dave Roetman: Contact their senators even if they’re co-sponsors they should already still contact their senator because the senators need a little bit of a morale boost sometimes they’re like you know pat on the back like you’re doing the right thing that makes them feel a bit better gives them more confidence it also gives them more confidence to talk to some of their colleagues and say hey look this is popular and i think that’s so important people don’t realize six or ten people calling in support of a bill that makes a difference, that will appear on the Senator’s briefing in the morning.
If 10 people show up, email or call about an issue.
Heidi Engelhart: Correct. I’ll go over the poll numbers that are in favor of this. I’m going to start in 2024. The Gallup poll found 84% of voters supported providing photo identification at the polling place, and that includes 84% of independents and 67%.
[10:00]
Democrats in 2025, found that 83% of Americans, so it jumped 12% in a year of American support requiring voter IDs, and that includes 71% Democrats. So this is not just a Republican issue. This is very popular with the American people as a whole. Democrats who are in support of this need to be calling their senators so we can push this through. You’d think that.
Dave Roetman: Given how popular is amongst their own party. That’s almost three to one. 71% is almost three to one support. You’d think that, pay a little bit of attention to what their own voters want.
Heidi Engelhart: Yep so 83 percent americans support proof of citizenship when registering to vote the big pushback on that is oh some of these people don’t know how to get identification that’s absurd okay come on let me find my paperwork here You have to have photo ID for the SNAP program. You have to have photo ID for the WIC program. Then I went through and asked, we have to have a voter ID for Veterans Health.
Tricare, Lifeline programs, Medicaid and CHIP programs, temporary assistance for needy families, general leave or county cash aid. And I know some of these are not in-South Dakota, but it is other programs that are out there that require photo ID. You have to have photo ID sometimes to go to movies, you have to have photo ID to get on an airplane, doctor’s office, purchase alcohol.
Dave Roetman: That’s a big word there. You need photo ID to buy beer, come on. Right.
Heidi Engelhart: So so anyway so you know these people know how to get photo i a photo id yeah no but that is one of the huge oppositions that the democrats are using to not push not to support these now they’re just gaslighting Yeah, so then we have the Make Elections Great Again Act and this one actually was introduced I think just the end of January and it has not gone through i think even committee in the house it’s sitting over there and this one the key provisions on this one is require photo identification to vote in federal elections mandate voters to verify citizenship when individuals register to vote implement stronger routine voter , maintenance requirement to clean up our voter rolls, require mail-in and absentee ballots to be received by the close.
Of election day and no post-election grace periods, mandate the use of auditable paper ballots ban ballot harvesting third-party collection and submission of ballots ban ranked choice voting in federal elections and ban universal voter or vote by mail systems where ballots are automatically mailed out to register voters. So this one covers quite a bit of other things. I agree with all those. Yes, I mean really it’s just applying common sense.
To our elections, things I think many people thought were already there, that were already doing, they were already, but in 2020 there were many things that went by the wayside. So that’s that one and I think that one looks like... Really an excellent one to put through right now we’re working on the save america act people need to be calling their senators it doesn’t matter if you’re republican and we have 49 percent or 49 supporters so far in the senate call anyway people need to democrats need to be calling tell your democrat friends about it have them call their senators.
Republicans that have Democrat senators be calling. I think it’s important that this one goes through. It’s very popular overall with the American people. I think people want to know that when they show up at the polls, their vote is going to count. The voter apathy you hear my vote’s not going to count or, even if I do go vote, there’s so much fraud that it’s not going to count. So I think.
[15:00]
This would be a good way to help the American people know that their elections are secure. It’s a good step in that and then maybe work on make elections great. One thing, yes, one thing that President Trump did is he did mention Nationalizing our elections one thing and I know many people just you know kind of panicked about that and he has a way of Moving the narrative by things that he says moving the Overton window.
Let’s just get this conversation Talk about this. Did he necessarily mean that? You. Or did he mean, let’s get these bills passed, let’s get these through? So that’s brought some confusion. Well.
Dave Roetman: Trump has a particular negotiation style where he always demands more than he actually wants. Now, for example, in Greenland, he got everything he actually wanted, talking about annexing it, and he’s talking about, not really a military force, and he’s talking about paying them, and he didn’t have to do anything. He got everything he wanted from Greenland for free. Which was basically, military guarantees, permanent military basing, and overflight, and that’s what he really wanted.
So Trump talking about nationalizing elections, come on, he was, he’s demanding more than what he actually wants. That’s his negotiation style.
Heidi Engelhart: Well, and it did get everybody talking about it. Exactly. It works to stay back through. It really did. Here we are. So that’s where that one sits. I’ve gone through three of them. It’s been an interesting process. Going through them. So congress.gov. It’s a big site. You can pull a lot of information off there, but you have to have the 119th Congress 2025, 2026, you narrow it down. You’ll get things from years back, especially on the save act.
And then you’re going to see how many things.
Dave Roetman: People are trying to save out there so well i’ll tell you what i’ll just put the links in on this on the post so we can scroll down and see okay that’s good.
Heidi Engelhart: I’m going to talk a little bit about republican there is a little bit of republican opposition and maybe it’d be good to go over that for you know people to kind of understand some of that one of the big things i hear on people. The concern is when you mention the words real ID. So they are concerned about the use of real ID. They’re concerned that this is going to fully implement real ID and force REAL ID on everyone.
They get nervous with that. There has been some talk that you know the Supreme Court that is taking up the birthright citizenship ship. Up. Case and you know maybe we should be waiting for that to come out. I’m not sure that would change really anything in these bills. There are those that are worried about federal overreach on our elections and I do understand that the Constitution has given that to the states.
Except they do have the right to regulate federal elections.
Dave Roetman: ID should be no brainers. It’d be no more brainers that we have to prove that you’re a citizen and give your ID.
Heidi Engelhart: I agree. So in these bills, it does give you can use the Homeland Security database on helping to clean up your voter rolls. It’s more technical than that, but they’re a little concerned about that. They should be.
Dave Roetman: South Dakota’s voter rolls need cleaning up.
Heidi Engelhart: Yes, well, I think every state needs to have their voter rolls cleaned up. We do have a huge problem. 20 to 30 million people have crossed our border. We have an issue with this. We do need to clean up our voter rolls to ensure that only the United States citizens are... Let’s be real.
Dave Roetman: Illegal only to our voting in our elections. Thanks. Thanks.
Heidi Engelhart: One other thing I want to bring up, and I think sometimes this is an aspect that gets totally forgotten, and I know right now there’s a lot of pressure on Senator Thune with the filibuster and the SAVE Act and this and that. The Senate is on recess. I think they’re off all next week. This is the time. That we can really commit some time to prayer on this. Pray for Senator Thune.
For wisdom in dealing with this. There are pros and cons on that filibuster. So, the filibuster has been with us since the very first Congress. There’s different aspects of that. We don’t have time to get into all that, but I am asking everybody to be praying for Senator Thune that he has wisdom. On what is best for the American people. So we have a week to week and a half before they’re back in Washington, D.C.
[20:00]
So we won’t see any action on the SAVE Act for a little while, but please, I ask everybody to commit to prayer. That’s a big issue with the filibuster, so I ask everybody to Pray for wisdom. All right.
Dave Roetman: Heidi, thank you for being with us. This has been the Making Waves podcast. My name is Dave Roetman. We’ve been here with Heidi Engelhart, National Committeewoman for the South Dakota Republican Party. Thanks, Heidi. Thank you.
