Americans support the photo ID requirement of the SAVE America Act, but Democrats reject it

WASHINGTON — Republicans are pushing a popular cornerstone of their SAVE America Act to reform statewide elections: requiring photo identification to vote.

It’s a policy long opposed by Democrats in Congress, who liken it to dirty Jim Crow-era laws aimed at preventing African Americans from voting.

But that message is increasingly falling through with the American public, including black voters, as photo IDs are increasingly required for routine jobs, like flying.

A Pew Research Center poll in August examined various election laws and found that 83% of US adults support “requiring all voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote,” while 16% oppose it. That’s up from 77% support in a 2012 Pew poll.

Support now includes 71% of self-identified Democrats, 83% of independents and 76% of black voters.

“It seems like the only Americans who don’t support voter ID requirements are the Democrats here in Congress,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., said on the floor.

NBC News asked more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers whether they would accept some form of photo ID legislation for a vote. Only one expressed openness to it: Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.

“If they really want to have a real conversation, and if they match that 83% of Americans support showing basic ID — you know, I’m not going to tell 83% of Americans they’re crazy, or they’re trying to suppress votes, or they’re Jim Crow,” Fetterman told NBC News. “I can’t describe people like that.”

But Fetterman also said he would oppose the SAVE America Act as written, citing other provisions in the expanding bill.

While Republicans focused on the popularity of voter ID issuance, Democrats noted that the SAVE America Act would also require proof of citizenship — a passport or birth certificate — to register, a much higher burden of proof than photo ID. President Donald Trump also called for it to be amended to include major new restrictions on mail-in voting and provisions against trans athletes and gender-affirming surgeries on children.

“The SAVE Act is nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0. It would deport millions of American citizens,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said last week.

Citing a Pew poll, Thune said comparing it to Jim Crow “insults the vast majority of Americans — including minorities — who look at voter ID and see nothing but common sense.”

In a press call on Saturday, Schumer voted against other provisions in the SAVE America Act when asked about the popular photo ID proposal, which would give the Department of Homeland Security the power to search states’ voter rolls and flag people suspected of being improperly non-citizens.

“This is not a voter ID bill,” the Democratic leader said. “This is about cleaning votes in a big way, so that you don’t even get the chance to show your voter’s ID when you go to vote because you will be removed from the list.”

Former Senate Democratic aide Tré Easton said there is consensus on voter ID that his party should be open to.

“I think the Democrats should absolutely embrace the type of voter identification. I get why it’s been such a boogeyman, and the way it’s used the news,” said Easton, who is now vice president of public policy at the Searchlight Institute, a think tank that aims to expand the appeal of the Democratic Party.

Alternatively, he floated a “national identity card” linked to Social Security or another government program, which he said could serve as a “one-stop shop for all your business with the government.”

He added, “Obviously states will handle individual voter registration, but having a national ID is unknown.”

Still, for many Democratic lawmakers and trusted outside experts, the GOP’s push is a solution in search of a problem. Non-citizen voting in federal elections is already illegal and rare, according to an analysis by the liberal Brennan Center for a website produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“There is no ID that I think has been developed right now that has enough Americans to make it a requirement in every nation,” said Janai Nelson, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, suggesting other ways to verify voters, such as signature verification.

Brookings Institution senior fellow Norm Eisen added on a similar call led by Schumer, “There’s no need for this bill. It’s going to burden voters, election officials, and everybody. It’s not a voter ID bill, and there’s no voter ID problem.”

Sen. Angus King, an independent pollster in Maine who consults with Democrats, said “no” when asked if any kind of statewide photo ID mandate for voting would be acceptable to him.

“We don’t have it in Maine. Here’s what we have in Maine: We have Election Day registration, no voter ID, illegal voting by mail or drop boxes,” King said, citing studies that show voter fraud is statistically negligible. “The old saying in Maine is: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Some Democrats say they’re not worried about the idea of ​​voter ID, but about the way Republicans are trying to do it.

“You have to show that you are the person you say you are when you vote. I have never opposed that,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. “But they’re using voter ID as an excuse to decide which voters they think will keep them in power. That’s why, for example, a student ID is not good, but a military ID is good. So, I can tell you, as someone who ran in Georgia and saw what they’re trying to do with my run​​​​, that there are some people who don’t want to vote.”

Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., chairman of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, has stopped short of supporting any statewide photo ID requirements to vote. He said “what the Republicans are trying to do is not what they say they are trying to do.”

The SAVE America Act “by intent and design, will seek to disenfranchise, in most cases, 80% of women who marry to change their names, and 5% of men who marry to change their names,” Schneider said. “People who, for whatever reason, change their name, change their gender identity.”

Opponents of the bill note that a person’s birth certificate or passport may not match their married surname, and it can be expensive and time-consuming to update those documents.

“It’s targeting people to make it harder to vote,” Schneider said. “Furthermore, that bill required all states to transfer votes to the federal government.”

Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, said he saw Texas Republicans in the state Legislature trying to enact ID laws to keep voters engaged — for example, by allowing gun licenses but not a state-issued ID from the University of Texas to register to vote.

“We don’t want Republicans to try to game the system by looking for ways to get people out,” Veasey said. “Because of the legacy of Jim Crow and segregation, there are many places where I live in Texas, and in other parts of the South where, you know, someone’s birth may be recorded in the family Bible, or they may have been born by a midwife. They may not have been born in a county hospital.”

“A lot of people will just give up,” he said. “They will not go through those steps. They will say: ‘Forget it, I will not be able to vote because I was born during apartheid and there was no one to record my birth.’