‘We Should Move On’: These Republicans Think the Voter ID Fight Is Over
After months in which the SAVE America Act—a bill to require photo identification and proof of citizenship in federal elections—has been a major topic of discussion among Republican senators, some in the upper chamber are willing to call it quits and “move on.”
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“It’s a well-known fact around here, sometimes perhaps not fully grasped around the country … that we don’t have the votes,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.
Last week, the bill came close to its first real up-or-down vote on the Senate floor when Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced an amendment to a border funding legislation that would have waived rules governing the budgetary process and allowed the bill to be added.
Ultimately, four Republican senators joined all Democrats in voting against waiving those rules, and the amendment failed 48-50, short of the 60 votes needed to pass.
Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Susan Collins of Maine voted against it.
A separate, more narrowly tailored amendment introduced by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to require voter ID and ensure only citizens are on voter rolls also failed, 50-49. Collins supported it.
“The SAVE America didn’t even get 50 votes last week on the floor of the Senate, but even if you confine it to just the two issues of photo ID and proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, on those two issues it would take 60 votes in the Senate,” Thune said.
Thune added that the votes necessary to override the 60-vote legislative filibuster “aren’t even close.”
As Thune sees it, if voters want the bill passed, they should help Republicans grow their majority.
“It’s not something that we’re going to be able to get done absent having an election and electing some more Republicans,” he said.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, similarly told the Daily Signal he doesn’t see a path to codifying nationwide voter ID requirements.
“It’s clear there’s not enough votes to pass it, and we’re not going to eliminate the filibuster,” he said.
Cornyn recently lost in the Texas Senate primary runoff to state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has expressed willingness to override the filibuster to pass the bill.
“I don’t know what else there is to do,” Cornyn continued. “I support voter ID, and I support only American citizens voting, but Democrats are implacably opposed to it, and we don’t have enough Republicans to fill the gap. So, we should move on and focus on winning the midterms instead of fighting each other.”
Punchbowl News reported on Monday that Tillis recently penned an email to colleagues in which he called for an end to the failed SAVE America votes.
“The real problem I have is that the president (and a few of our members?) forced us to take two more unsuccessful votes for the SAVE Act at the expense of our most vulnerable members in cycle,” Tillis reportedly wrote in the email.
This is not to say all Republican senators are ready to lay down their arms in the SAVE America Act battle.
“I’m not going to give up on it. I know Mike Lee won’t,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told the Daily Signal on Monday. “Over 80% of Americans want voter ID.”
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I am just an average American. My teen years were in the late 70s and I participated in all that that decade offered. Started working young, too young. Then I joined the Army before I graduated High School. I spent 25 years in, mostly in Infantry units. Since then I've worked in information technology positions all at small family owned companies. At this rate I'll never be a tech millionaire. When I was young I rode horses as much as I could. I do believe I should have been a cowboy. I'm getting in the saddle again by taking riding lessons and see where it goes.
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