In a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) says she supports the SAVE America Act’s “core tenets,” which she describes as “ensuring that only American citizens vote and requiring identification when voting.” I take her at her word. So let me do something Washington rarely does in an op-ed fight. I will agree with her, correct the record, and then offer to fix what is left.

Start with the agreement. Eighty-four percent of Americans believe you should prove you are a citizen before you register to vote, and that includes most Democrats. The senator is right that “free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our republic.” She is also right: Alaska is a state twice the size of Texas, with whole communities that have no roads, and that raises legitimate questions that a senator from Alaska has every duty to raise.

But several of her claims about the bill are wrong, and Alaskans and Americans deserve the accurate version.

The House-backed bill does not end online voter registration. It keeps it, and it says so, directing that “the online voter registration system notifies the individual of the photo identification requirements…before the individual completes the online registration process.” It does not force anyone who is already registered to re-register or to dig up a birth certificate. It applies only “with respect to applications for voter registration which are submitted on or after” the effective date, and everyone already on the rolls is grandfathered in. A passport is not required, either. It is only one of several accepted documents. A birth certificate, a naturalization certificate, or an American Indian KIC card also qualifies when presented with a government photo ID. And a recently married or divorced woman will not lose her vote if she has to wait to receive certified copies of vital documents. The bill lets her sign an affidavit “attesting that the name on the documentation is a previous name of the applicant.”

The senator offers three vivid examples: an 18-year-old in Savoonga, an 85-year-old Native elder born before statehood, and a fisherman in Unalaska. Look at each one. The bill already says that a citizen who “cannot provide documentary proof of United States citizenship” may sign an attestation “under penalty of perjury” and “submit such other evidence” for an official to review. So, the teenager in Savoonga is not flying anywhere. The elder, if she is already registered, is grandfathered in and does not have to do a thing. If the elder has moved and must re-register, Alaska has kept birth records since 1913, and the state has a procedure to issue birth certificates for exactly these home births, which she can order by mail or online without leaving her community. If even that record is gone, the bill’s attestation option still lets her register. And the fisherman in Unalaska? The senator says his nearest option is Anchorage, 800 miles away. Yet, Alaska makes provisions for remote locations for voter registration. A state-authorized DMV partner was processing tags and titles right there in Unalaska this year, from late January into February. It could be setup to process driver’s licenses in the future. Unalaska also has a public library, which is one of the places in Alaska where people register to vote, and could be set up to process voter registrations if it is not already.

Here is what the senator leaves out. This bill is not unworkable in Alaska. It fits the system Alaska already runs. Alaska automatically registers voters through the Permanent Fund Dividend, a program more than eight in ten Alaskans apply for every year, in every village in the state. The dividend is available to both citizens and permanent residents. The initial dividend application requires people to present in person or to mail in an original birth certificate, passport, naturalization certificate, or other immigration documents. If they mail it, after the state verifies eligibility, the state mails it back to them in a self-addressed, stamped envelope. The very machinery the senator calls impossible already exists and reaches the communities she is worried about.

One thing is missing, and it is the thing the SAVE America Act fixes. Alaska’s automatic voter registration is supposed to be only for eligible voters and is done through the annual Permanent Fund Dividend application process, not the initial process, and only requires proof of citizenship once, not annually. Alaska is registering, at least in some cases, noncitizen voters who apply for the payment. You do not have to take my word for it—take the state’s. Alaska’s own election website warns that “Just because you received a Voter Identification Card, does not mean you are a U.S. Citizen.” Then it tells non-citizens who got registered anyway what to do about it. In the state’s own words, “When you fill out your PFD, you are automatically registered to vote. If you are not a U.S. Citizen, contact the Division of Elections so they can cancel your voter registration.” This means Alaska registers people first and asks them to cancel themselves later if they are not citizens. That is exactly the concern so many have had about noncitizens inadvertently being able to register to vote. Right there in the senator’s own backyard, Alaska has given us the prime example of the problem, and proof of citizenship would solve this problem.

Now for the part where I extend my hand. The senator’s strongest concerns are legitimate, and they can be fixed with amendments rather than a no vote. Amending a bill to win a member’s support is called legislating, and Congress used to do it every day.

First, Alaska’s geography and weather. Let’s write Alaska’s own dividend model into the bill so that Alaskans can provide proof of citizenship by mail, in addition to in person. If that process is good enough to send an Alaskan a dividend check, it is good enough to register that same Alaskan to vote.

Second, the timeline. The claim that this can’t be done in time does not survive the facts. Arizona, Wyoming, and several other states already require documentary proof to register. For those states, compliance is almost instant, and the bill will allow Arizona to ditch the “federal-only” ballots that a 2013 Supreme Court ruling forces on them. Across the country, the most common way Americans register to vote is at the DMV, which already collects these same documents from citizens to issue a REAL ID. Grocery stores and gas stations train teenagers to check a photo ID in a single shift. Alaska is better positioned than most states since it already collects these documents through the dividend and uses the annual Permanent Fund Dividend applications to register voters. So, Alaska needs to take one extra step and confirm that the person being registered is actually a citizen. Proof of citizenship would apply only to new registrations going forward, since everyone who is already registered to vote will be grandfathered in to continue voting. Alaska can stand that up quickly. The timeline will not be instantaneous, and it need not take years to complete. Start the timeline now and allow reasonable grace for any state that truly needs the time.

Third, accountability. The senator worries that election officials could be sued. But look at where we are today. There is no requirement to verify citizenship when someone registers, and no real enforcement mechanism behind the law that already bars noncitizens from voting. For the first time, this bill creates a real deterrent against the bad actor who breaks the law on purpose and a penalty strong enough to stop him before the damage is done. The honest clerk who follows the bill’s attestation process or makes a simple clerical mistake is not the target and has nothing to fear. If needed, make minor adjustments to the bill to allow for honest people to make honest mistakes, while still holding bad actors accountable.

The House reconciliation 3.0 package includes a $10 billion pot to assist states with these changes, plus a $50 million program to issue REAL IDs free of charge to low-income Americans. The resources the senator requests are already on the table.

Sen. Murkowski, you filed amendments because you want this done right. So do I. The organization I lead has spent two and a half years working on this legislation. We traveled through 20 states by bus over a three-week period to gather support for this bill, and I have stood in your home state to make the case for it. I am not asking you to abandon Alaska. I am asking you to help us write the version that works for Alaska, and then to vote yes.

Only American citizens should vote in American elections. Let’s finish the job together.

Jenny Beth Martin is chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.