Amendment to require photo ID to vote fails in Senate as Democrats object

Washington — An amendment that would require voters to show photo identification to cast a ballot failed to advance in the Senate on Thursday, despite Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying last week that Democrats were not opposed to such a requirement.

The amendment to the elections bill needed 60 votes to advance. It was defeated in a 53 to 47 vote.

The vote came during the second week of a marathon debate over a controversial elections bill known as the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and certain forms of photo ID to cast a ballot. The legislation does not have enough support to clear the 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber, but President Trump has dialed up the pressure on Senate Republicans to find a way to force it through.

Schumer condemned the amendment on Thursday before the vote, arguing it would "impose the single strictest voter ID law in America."

"This radical amendment would toss out every single voter ID requirement in all 50 states for federal elections and put in an overly restrictive, one-size-fits-all approach," the New York Democrat said.

GOP Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio offered the amendment, which lists valid forms of photo ID as a driver's license, state-issued identification, passport, military ID or tribal ID.

"The types of IDs that are sitting in wallets right now, that the American people use on a regular basis," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said in a floor speech Wednesday.

Ahead of the vote, Husted called the amendment "clean, simple, straightforward," adding that there are "no additional restrictions, no tricks, no games, no prohibition on absentee voting."

Schumer said it would require people who vote by mail to include a photocopy of their ID with their ballot, which would eliminate the secrecy of how someone voted.

Husted accused Schumer of misrepresenting how the mail-in ballot process would work. He said voters would include a photo of their ID or the last four digits of their Social Security number on the outside of the secrecy envelope containing the ballot. The information would be validated to ensure that it's from a registered voter before separating it from the ballot, which would be counted separately, he said.

Polling has shown Americans are largely in favor of requiring a valid ID to vote.

Thune said Tuesday that Republicans would put Democrats on the spot on the issue after Schumer said last week that Democrats are not opposed to photo ID. Schumer said, "our objection as Democrats is not to a photo ID," as he railed against the SAVE America Act as "a naked attempt to rig our elections."

"This is an issue on which there is broad agreement with the public, and obviously we're going to give the Democrats an opportunity to vote on that one particular issue, and that is whether or not people ought to have to show some form of identification when they go to vote," Thune said.