WASHINGTON — Democrats have continued to push back on the SAVE Act while Republicans were pushing for what President Donald Trump has called the number one GOP priority, and now the Senate plans to continue debating the controversial bill all weekend.
If passed into law, the Republican-backed legislation would require U.S. citizens to provide voter ID at the ballot box, and mail-in votes would be massively hindered. But some lawmakers have expressed concern that this could ultimately backfire on Republicans, especially ahead of the midterms and 2028 presidential election.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) told Raw Story in an exclusive interview that the SAVE Act would greatly impact seniors and disenfranchise them — and that the legislation wasn't about making sure citizens can vote, but instead ensuring that Trump can have federal control of upcoming elections.
"Let's say you're like a senior and you don't have a passport anymore, you don't travel anymore. Maybe you never had a passport, and you can't find your birth certificate. What do you do?" Kelly said.
"I think they're OK with people not voting anymore," Kelly said. "And you can go through a long list of, I mean, we all have to re-register. We all have to get these, you know, these documents. And what if somebody doesn't want a passport? They don't, they don't travel, or they can't afford to pay for the passport. What happens to them? They get disenfranchised."
Kelly said people don't always have access to their birth certificate, creating another layer of problems for voters if the legislation passes.
"The hospital I was born in, with my birth certificate, mine comes from the hospital. That place is closed," Kelly said. "What would I do if I didn't have a passport?
"Let's say I wasn't, you know, a U.S. senator, and I'm like, OK, what do I do? Who do I contact? So they're trying to make this really, really hard for people to vote," Kelly said. "And then, you know, I think [Sen. Eric] Schmidt is going to add this amendment to try to eliminate vote by mail — 80 percent of Arizonans vote by mail. In some states, 100 percent of people vote by mail; that's the only option. And it is equally popular in Arizona with Republicans. I think we are, we're trying to save them from themselves, because this will disenfranchise possibly millions of people."
The push for the GOP legislation comes as Trump has federal authorities investigate the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, Arizona, and Fulton County, Georgia.
"I think the president just can't accept that he lost an election despite having won two for president, and he still can't accept it," Kelly said. "It's a combination of that and I think it's, he wants to try to get control over the voting infrastructure, leading up to the 2026 and 2028 elections. I think that's what that's about."
"When you have 2,000 counties and 2,000 plus county recorders, it's really hard for somebody to steal an election," Kelly said. "So when you have one entity, it gets much easier to try to influence the outcome of an election.
Trump has even complained that GOP lawmakers could find it hard to win the midterms without this legislation.
"He said he wants Republicans to control the elections in 15 states," Kelly said. "I mean, that's what he said after nationalizing the elections. Like a couple of sentences later, this is months ago now, he says, 'Yeah, I want Republicans in charge of the elections in 15 states' is what he said. What states? I imagine mine is one of them. Georgia is probably one of them, probably, you know, the ones that have those battleground states for presidential elections, probably somebody should ask him, which 15 states are you talking about?
But Democrats haven't given up.
"This bill is a big deal," Kelly said. "I mean, we passed the Voting Rights legislation in the 1960s. And now it's gonna be up to us to protect us."
The decision will rest with senators.
"I think we're gonna, we're going to do our best, you know, to save voting rights to the American people," Kelly said. "This is not about voter ID. They throw around this polling data that voter ID has 80% approval. Yeah, that's voter ID like we have in Arizona. That's not what this is."
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story that Republicans weren't ready to give up on passing the SAVE Act despite mounting criticism from Democrats.
"We don't want to kill the bill," Johnson said. "This is how it's really supposed to work, OK, where if you had Democrats who are constructive, that'd be fine, but they're not. They want to kill the bill, OK, it's existential to them. So we've got Republicans, you know, we've got a broad spectrum. There are people who have issues with some of the reasonable restrictions on mail-in ballots. So how can we make them reasonable for them? So let's use this process to hone this piece of legislation so that at least we'll have Republican support."
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told Raw Story that despite Republican maneuvers to try to "fill the tree," a procedure where the Senate majority leader uses their role to "freeze" or control the amendment process, Democrats still were not convinced, and that they had another plan if that happened.
"Democrats feel strongly that it's an effort to disenfranchise eligible registered voters," Kaine said.
"The tree might get filled, but we can bring up privileged resolutions even if they fill the tree, as long as you're not in post, called up in the middle of anything," Kaine added.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), who co-sponsored the bill, told Raw Story she stands by the legislation.
"And that is something I've thought about as we've teed up the Save Act, but I am a co-sponsor, and it's important. I believe that everybody who votes be a citizen and be able to prove it," Lummis said. "That's pretty simple. Now, if we get in the weeds and start telling every state what to do, then I get uncomfortable."
Lummis said it's unclear what could happen over the next 10 days, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) was expected to potentially delay its recess, according to reports.
"I think we're all a little curious," Lummis added.