The Senate began debate this week on the so-called SAVE Act, which includes a national voter ID requirement. Democrats have vowed to fight the legislation, likely leaving the GOP short of the 60-vote threshold necessary to advance the bill. President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to ditch the filibuster to allow passage with a simple majority vote.
But such myopia would be a massive mistake that could haunt the GOP for years, allowing a future Democratic majority to wreak all sorts of havoc, including expanding the Supreme Court. See: Harry Reid and the “nuclear” option. Oops. Thankfully, Senate Majority Leader John Thune knows how to count: He has stated repeatedly that Republicans don’t have the votes in the upper chamber to circumvent the filibuster even if they wanted to.
Perhaps principle does still count for something in Washington.
“The votes aren’t there to do a talking filibuster,” Sen. Thune said Tuesday. “And so what we are doing is we are having a fulsome debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate. We’ll have it up, everybody will have their say. At some point we’ll have votes, and we’ll see where the votes are.”
By all means, Republicans should force Senate Democrats to go on the record in opposition to voter ID laws, which are overwhelmingly popular across the political spectrum. That shouldn’t be surprising: Voter ID is a reasonable election security measure.
A Pew Research poll last year found that 83 percent adults surveyed back “requiring all voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote.” This included 71 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of independents and 76 percent of Black voters.
Such widespread support highlights that there’s no need to blow up Senate protocol over the issue, given that voters in many states — including Nevada — will soon have the opportunity to impose the requirement themselves.
The National Council of State Legislatures reports that 36 states already have laws that require voters to show some sort of identification at the polls.
Of the 14 states lacking the mandate, at least three may soon feature ballot initiatives imposing the requirement. Voter signature drives are ongoing in Maine and California, for instance, to qualify proposals for the November ballot. And in Nevada, voters easily approved — 72-28 — a voter ID initiative in 2024. It will become law if it passes again this year.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has repeatedly said that voter ID requirements are akin to “Jim Crow 2.0.” This is ridiculous, detached from reality and out of step with the great majority of Americans. Democrats make such inane assertions at the own peril. In the meantime, states are moving in the right direction on this issue regardless of what happens in the Senate.
