XPost: alt.politics.elections, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: someone@outlook.com   
      
   WASHINGTON — The SAVE America Act to require proof of citizenship   
   nationwide to register to vote and overhaul voting laws has now topped 50   
   votes in the Republican-controlled Senate.   
      
   The bill is supported by President Donald Trump and passed the House last   
   week, meaning the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule is the only thing   
   standing in the way of it becoming law.   
      
   The tally guarantees a battle over the bill on the Senate floor as   
   Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised a vote. But he warned   
   last week that there are “not even close” to enough votes for getting rid   
   of the filibuster, despite Trump's calls to do so. If the filibuster   
   remains intact, the legislation will still fail as Democrats are certain   
   to use every tool to block it.   
      
   Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, the chief sponsor of the bill, is pushing   
   Republicans to use existing rules to force Democrats to engage in a   
   “talking filibuster” on the floor of the Senate. The idea is to tire out   
   opposing Democrats and pass it. But the tactic is a long shot, viewed by   
   previous Senate majorities as doomed to fail if attempted. The rules make   
   it considerably easier for a filibustering minority to sustain the 60-vote   
   threshold than for a majority to break their will and advance a bill with   
   51 votes.   
      
   Sen. Susan Collins, the centrist from Maine who faces a competitive re-   
   election bid this fall, became the 50th Republican supporter of the   
   legislation, an elated Lee announced last week.   
      
   “I support the version of the SAVE America Act that recently passed the   
   House,” Collins said in a statement. “The law is clear that in this   
   country, only American citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections.   
   In addition, having people provide an ID at the polls, just as they have   
   to do before boarding an airplane, checking into a hotel, or buying an   
   alcoholic beverage, is a simple reform that will improve the security of   
   our federal elections and will help give people more confidence in the   
   results."   
      
   She said the revisions to the bill resolve her earlier concerns by easing   
   the proof-of-citizenship rule for casting a ballot, instead requiring   
   states to see it only when registering a person to vote.   
      
   If it were a simple majority vote, Collins’ support would be enough. Vice   
   President JD Vance could break the tie and send it to Trump’s desk to   
   become law. But Collins made clear she does not support gutting the   
   filibuster to do that.   
      
   “I oppose eliminating the legislative filibuster,” she said. “The   
   filibuster is an important protection for the rights of the minority party   
   that requires senators to work together in the best interest of the   
   country.”   
      
   Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate. Some in the party have not   
   signed on to the measure, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and   
   Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Murkowski called it an example of the “one-size-   
   fits-all mandates from Washington” that Republicans regularly criticize.   
   And McConnell, who hasn’t commented on the bill, has long said he believes   
   states should run their own elections without federal intrusion.   
      
   Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has slammed the bill as “Jim   
   Crow 2.0,” designed to disenfranchise Americans who don’t readily have   
   access to a birth certificate or passport.   
      
   “They make it so hard to get any kind of voter ID that more than 20   
   million legitimate people, mainly poorer people and people of color, will   
   not be able to vote under this law,” Schumer said Sunday on CNN. “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.”   
      
   Schumer was responding to a question about a poll last August by the Pew   
   Research Center that shows 83% of American adults support “requiring all   
   voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote.”   
      
   In addition to mandating a photo ID to vote, the SAVE America Act requires   
   people to show proof of U.S. citizenship in person to register. That   
   includes those voting by mail, who would also have to enclose a copy of a   
   photo ID to vote.   
      
   Thune has said Senate Republicans will have a “robust” discussion about   
   how to proceed on the SAVE America Act, while warning that attempting a   
   “talking filibuster” would eat up considerable floor time and “entail a   
   tremendous amount of effort, work and cooperation” — all with no guarantee   
   of success.   
      
   Trump has repeatedly pressed for passage of the bill and Lee has framed it   
   as an existential question for the U.S.   
      
   “This is high-stakes legislation,” he wrote on X. “Pass it and we save the   
   republic. Don’t pass it and we roll the dice.”   
      
   https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trumps-election-bill-save-   
   america-act-50-senate-votes-democrats-block-rcna259351   
      
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