Sen. Padilla slams SAVE America Act voter suppression amendment

March 27, 2026 - WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, issued the following statement after leading Democrats’ efforts to successfully block Republicans’ voter suppression amendment to advance the SAVE America Act, marking a key defeat as President Trump and Republicans’ try to ram their anti-voter bill through the Senate ahead of the midterm elections:

“No matter how Republicans try to spin it, the SAVE America Act is a voter suppression bill, plain and simple. It is a desperate, un-American attempt to avoid accountability in the next election — even Donald Trump admits the goal is to ‘guarantee the midterms.’

“As this Administration drives up the cost of health care, groceries, gas, and energy bills, Congress should be focused on the cost of living for American families. Instead, Republicans chose to spend the last two weeks debating a bill to make it harder for eligible Americans to register to vote, stay registered to vote, and cast their ballot.

“Democrats are committed to defending the American people’s fundamental right to vote. And if Republicans choose to continue their effort, Democrats will continue fighting Donald Trump’s election ‘takeover’ bill every day, tooth and nail, as long as it takes.”

Before the vote, Ranking Member Padilla held the Senate floor for a third time, leading Democrats’ continued fight to defeat Trump’s attempted election “takeover” bill.

Today’s vote was Senate Republicans’ most significant attempt to advance the bill after beginning debate on March 17. Senator Jon Husted’s (R-Ohio) amendment to the SAVE America Act — which Democrats defeated — threatened to disenfranchise millions of eligible Americans in an election year through a backdoor ban on mail-in voting, and would have blocked common forms of voter ID like federal and state agency IDs, student IDs, and Tribal IDs that many Republican-led states currently allow. The amendment was nearly identical to the underlying provision in the broader SAVE America Act, which also undermines widely-used voter registration methods, and requires all states to hand over their unredacted voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security, potentially leading to voter purges. If enacted, the bill would be effective immediately, throwing state and local election administration into chaos.

Video of Padilla’s floor speech is available here.

A full transcript of Padilla’s remarks is below.

Remarks as delivered:

I rise in opposition to the amendment that we’re going to be voting on shortly. But I want to begin by sharing that I’m a little confused, not to the substance of the amendment, but to the process.

I think we just heard a few minutes ago, the Majority Leader suggest that it was going to be a clean vote on a voter ID measure when, as I see it, it is a standalone amendment with language that’s already in the underlying bill. It’s also language that’s in a substitute amendment as well.

So I understand there’s some showmanship and theatrics going on here. Let me talk, before I talk about the substance of the bill, let me make one other observation as to what is and what isn’t happening here.

As prices are going up for families across the country — we’ve talked about it so many times — health care costs, grocery bills, price at the pump, we’re not focusing or debating ideas on how to bring down costs for working families. Instead, we’ve now spent two weeks debating a bill that would make it harder for eligible Americans to register to vote, to stay registered to vote, and to cast their ballot. How un-American and how un-democratic that is.

Another observation. As we are going back and forth on negotiations for how to restore funding for TSA and the Coast Guard and FEMA and CISA, we’re not talking about that right here and now. We’re spending even more time now on an amendment to an amendment to a bill, where the language is already there, on a bill that the American people do not support.

So let’s get to the substance. Now, throughout this debate, so many of my Republican colleagues have chosen to focus on the topic of voter ID. To be clear, we’ll always strive for free and fair elections, and of course, we want to make them safe and secure, and indeed, they already are. Report after report, study after study, audit after audit shows that the rate of voter fraud is exceedingly, exceedingly rare.

And so what does that tell us? It tells us that existing laws, existing safeguards, are working. To suggest otherwise is fundamentally inaccurate.

A simple way of saying this, it’s a lie. It’s a Big Lie, a Big Lie that’s been used as a pretext for so many bad things in this country coming out of this Administration. What this bill would do — excuse me, the amendment to the amendment to the bill, same language.

What this effort would do is block common forms of IDs: veterans IDs — veteran, service members can’t use that ID after their service and sacrifice to our nation. Sorry, that’s not enough to allow you to exercise your right to vote. Student IDs also not good enough. Tribal IDs without expiration dates. Some do, many do not have expiration dates on their tribal IDs. That’s not enough to allow you to participate in our democracy even though you are eligible.

But wait, there’s more. This so-called voter ID amendment would also impose new requirements on the tens of millions of Americans who choose or rely on voting by mail.

The Majority Leader also suggested that, well, through this amendment, it’s simply a requirement to show a voter ID at the polls. As I read the bill, it’s very clear: this would result in requiring voters to include a photocopy of their ID with their mail ballot. This is a new, additional, and unnecessary obstacle to a very popular form of voting.

How popular? In the 2024 election, 48 million voters chose to vote by mail. And in case you missed the breaking news a couple of days ago, President Trump once again voted by mail in the special election in Florida.

So what, is it good enough for the President, but not good enough for the rest of us? Secure enough for the President, but not secure enough for the American people?

Think about what a voter would have to go through with this new requirement. Okay, you have your ID, now you got to go find a copy machine because most people don’t have a copy machine at home, include a copy of your ID along with your ballot.

And we’ve been telling people, because of so many frauds and scams that are common, to protect their personal information, be careful with it. And now we’re saying, let’s add copies of our ID and put it into the mail. Give me a break.

This is not a requirement in Ohio or in Florida or Texas or South Dakota — not even in Utah, where voting by mail is very popular, and states that have voter ID, this is not a requirement in those states. So why is it now so urgent and necessary to impose this on voters across the country?

The more I think about it, the more it’s clear: this is an ongoing concerted effort to make it harder for people to vote.

Now we’ve seen what happens when strict voter ID requirements are imposed in our elections. We don’t have to speculate. We’ve seen what’s happened in New Hampshire. I spoke to that experience a few days ago here on the floor. We’ve seen what’s happened in the state of Kansas. I spoke to that on the floor of the Senate just a few days ago.

That’s the real-world impact of policies and proposals like this: making it harder for eligible Americans to vote.

And it also threatens to throw this year’s elections into chaos, because if this were to pass and this president signed it into law, this law would go into effect immediately. It’s not just about the November midterm elections; there’s primary elections that are already underway.

So how do you implement that with no transition period, no additional resources to help state and local governments actually implement the new requirements of the law. You’re going to require a voter ID, but not create a mechanism for all eligible voters to obtain a free, easily available ID so that they don’t lose their right to vote.

And all this is being done without the most basic level of review. That’s right: what’s before us has not had a hearing in either the House of Representatives or here in the Senate, no input from state and local elections officials who actually administer elections. You don’t overhaul election systems this fundamentally without hearing from elections officials and experts in this field, and you don’t do it in the middle of an election cycle.

That’s just some of the reasons why Democrats have been so determined for weeks now, coming here to the floor every single day fighting this bill tooth and nail, because we are committed to defending our fundamental right to vote in the United States of America, and we’ll continue coming here to speak and do everything in our power to stop this Donald Trump election “takeover” bill.

Now, President Trump’s been very clear as to why he wants this bill to pass. This bill is about one thing and one thing only: helping his party win this November’s midterm elections and elections for the next 50 years. That’s how he’s described it. The need and the urgency to hold on to power.

And this bill is about more than just voter ID. This bill would ban voter registration drives. Voter registration drives in communities, on college campuses every election cycle — gone, banned, eliminated.

This bill would also force states to hand over to the Department of Homeland Security the sensitive information of every voter in America, which would result in voter purges. Again, not speculating — it’s happening already.

And before anyone suggests that this is a partisan issue, oh Democrats are just opposed to it because it’s a blue state versus red state thing, not true. More than half a dozen states led by Republicans are refusing to comply with the Administration’s demand that they hand over their voter rolls.

Colleagues, this is a voter suppression bill, plain and simple. The effect of it would be that fewer people participate in our democracy.

We should be working to have more people participate. We can, and we do while keeping it safe and secure. This bill takes us in the wrong direction. This bill means more barriers for working families, for seniors, for students, and others. It means a step backwards at a time where we should be making participation easier, not harder.

Colleagues, it’s our responsibility and a powerful obligation to protect the right to vote in America, and if you’re willing to live up to that, join me. I urge you all: vote “no” on this amendment.

Thank you, Mr. President, I yield.

Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump and Republicans’ reckless attempts to restrict the right to vote. Last week, Padilla joined leading voting rights advocates and impacted voters from across the country at the Capitol to push back against the anti-voter SAVE America Act. Padilla also took to the Senate floor twice last week to lead the opposition to the bill. Padilla, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Representative Joe Morelle (N.Y.-25), and voting rights advocates also held a press conference rejecting Trump and Congressional Republicans’ attempted election takeover, including through the SAVE America Act. Last month, Padilla spoke on the Senate floor to condemn Republicans’ attempts to pass the bill. Last May, he stopped Senator Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) attempt to pass the anti-voter SAVE Act through the Senate by unanimous consent. He also convened a Rules Committee Democrats spotlight forum focused on Congressional Republicans’ SAVE Act and Trump’s illegal anti-voter executive order. As President Trump marked 100 disastrous days in office, Padilla led his Democratic colleagues on the Senate floor to speak out against the SAVE Act and the Trump Administration’s attacks on election integrity. Last April, he warned Secretaries of State, Lieutenant Governors, and Chief Election Officials across the country of the devastating potential impacts of the SAVE Act, concerns that have been echoed by top election officials across the country.

In January, Senator Padilla and Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) led 26 Senate colleagues in pressing DOJ to stop its unlawful pressure campaign to coerce dozens of states into providing the Trump Administration their voter rolls, which include voters’ personally identifiable information. Last October, Padilla and Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.) filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit opposing the Trump Administration’s illegal ongoing attempts to purge state voter rolls across the country by developing a massive interagency database of Americans’ sensitive personal data. Additionally, Padilla and Representative Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio-03) announced the Voter Purge Protection Act last year to prevent the Trump Administration’s ongoing voter purge efforts, including by prohibiting the removal of individuals from the voter rolls due to changes in residence or not voting in previous elections.

Source: Senator Alex Padilla