Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed to fight “tooth and nail” against the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act on Sunday, claiming “over 20 million” people won’t be able to vote if it gets signed into law.
The House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act by a vote of 218-213 on Wednesday, but it is expected to have a tough time passing in the Senate, where the Republican Party has a three-seat majority.
CNN’s Jake Tapper cited polling data showing that 83% of United States residents surveyed support voter ID requirements, including 71% of Democrats. Schumer responded that “each state can have its own voter ID laws, adding that “some do, and some don’t.”
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“But secondly, what they are proposing in this so-called SAVE Act is like Jim Crow 2.0,” Schumer said on CNN’s State of the Union. “They make it so hard to get any kind of voter ID that more than 20 million legitimate people, mainly poor people and people of color, will not be able to vote under this law. We will not let it pass in the Senate; we are fighting it tooth and nail.”
“It‘s an outrageous proposal that shows the sort of political bias of the MAGA right. They don‘t want poor people to vote. They don‘t want people of color to vote cause they often don‘t vote for them,” Schumer said.
Schumer’s take comes a week after Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump, argued the SAVE Act will “try to suppress the vote.” Like the Senate minority leader, Schiff dismissed the polling showing mass support for voter ID.
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Washington Examiner investigations editor Sarah Bedford said Republicans could pass the SAVE Act without eliminating the 60-vote filibuster by using a “talking filibuster.” This would “force Democratic members” to give speeches on why they oppose this bill.
Bedford also said the SAVE Act being “dead on arrival” in the Senate would be “a real failure” for Senate Republican leadership. She said the legislation addresses an “80-20 issue,” and that the Republican Party’s lack of urgency to pass it is why voters are frustrated with Republican lawmakers who “don’t fight for the things they say they support.”
