Trump’s Corrupt Voting Restrictions Blocked Again

Trump’s demands for passage of onerous new restrictions on voter registration nationwide have again been rejected by the US Senate, and appear to be dead for the time left before the midterm elections in November.

Last week the U.S. Senate rejected 48-50 an amendment to add the terms of the “SAVE America Act” to legislation funding immigration enforcement. While that funding bill advanced on narrow partisan votes, rejecting the SAVE terms remains an important win for upholding voter rights. The progression of the bill occurred under special rules (known as “reconciliation”) which allows a limited number of purely financial bills to avoid being blocked by a Senate filibuster. 

The “reconciliation” bill was signed into law by Trump after narrow approval by both the Senate and House, concluding a months-long battle over funding for ICE. After signing, Trump immediately demanded passage of another bill under the same reconciliation rules which would add $350 million in defense spending and include the SAVE Act.

Unlikely to Happen This Year

Senate Appropriations leaders, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, suggested at a hearing that there was effectively no chance of that happening this year. The SAVE Act has repeatedly fallen short of the votes needed to pass the Senate, and very little of that act complies with strict fiscal rules governing the reconciliation process.

Voting Rights and Democracy Advocates Push Back

The SAVE Act has been strongly condemned by voting rights and democracy advocates, including the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) and the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters. LCV Democracy Program Director, Justin Kwasa, said it would be “the biggest federal voting rights rollback in American history.” 

Kwasa noted that “The SAVE America Act would block millions of American citizens from voting, force people to spend extra time and money chasing down documents just to exercise their rights, and cause chaos for underfunded local election offices. By requiring voters to provide only a passport or birth certificate to register to vote, this legislation would make voting nearly impossible for the 146 million Americans who don’t have a passport, 69 million married women whose names no longer match their birth certificates, and the millions more who can’t readily access either document.” 

See more details of the anti-voting rights contents of the SAVE Act here.