A Republican bill to enact restrictive voter ID measures has died in the Senate, with several GOP senators siding with Democrats to vote down the bill. Critics had argued that the bill was being pushed based on false Republican claims of voter fraud, and detractors warned that the stringent ID requirements would disenfranchise many people, including members of marginalized minority groups as well as trans individuals, married women and more.
Four Republicans side with Democrats to kill voter ID proposal
On Thursday, the Senate rejected an effort to push forward the SAVE America Act, a law supported by President Trump that would implement a restrictive national voter ID standard. Most notably, the law would have required voters to present proof-of-citizenship documents, such as a passport or birth certificate, in order to register to vote, in addition to having to prove their identity, as is currently standard. The act would have also required all voters to present photo ID while voting, restrict options for registering and voting by mail, and would have allowed the Department of Homeland Security to compile a national collection of states’ voter rolls in order to root out noncitizens through a process that has been criticized for erroneously flagging citizens.
Trump and his Republican allies presented the requirements as necessary to combat widespread voter fraud, which the president has repeatedly alleged without evidence. Critics pointed out that such voter fraud is incredibly rare and warned that millions of Americans did not have easy access to the documents required under the proposal.
The Senate was attempting to attach the SAVE America Act to an immigration funding bill.
Opposing Trump effort to push false voter fraud narrative
Democrats voted against the amendment to attach the SAVE America Act to the immigration bill, and they were joined by four Republican senators: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
The four Republicans had previously joined Democrats to block a version of the SAVE America Act in April. The rejection by the four Republicans was a rebuke to President Trump, who has pushed for the SAVE America Act as part of his false narrative of widespread voter fraud. Ahead of Thursday’s vote, Trump again pushed for the act during an Oval Office event while continuing to push unfounded election fraud conspiracy theories, insinuating without evidence that fraud was occurring in California’s primary elections.
Act could have disenfranchised millions of voters
As Blavity previously reported, Republicans in the House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in February. Critics of the bill warned that it could disenfranchise millions of people who did not have the required documents, such as a passport, and could not afford them or obtain them in time to vote. The law was expected to disproportionately impact young people and people of color.
The law could have also blocked the ability to vote for people whose legal names did not match their passports or birth certificates, such as married women or trans individuals. The act, which would have been implemented immediately if it had been passed, is part of a larger effort by Republicans to change the rules in their favor ahead of the midterm elections. The GOP has also been using partisan and racist redistricting efforts in Republican-controlled states to tilt the election their way as the two parties compete for control of Congress.
Trump had prioritized the SAVE America Act, previously posting on social media that the act “supersedes everything else” and saying that he “will not sign other bills until this is passed.”
It is unclear whether Trump will follow through on his earlier threat to refuse to sign other bills before the SAVE America Act is passed. For now, such passage does not appear to be happening anytime soon, with members of the president’s own party reaching across the aisle to block the restrictive voter ID measure from advancing.