The talkathon could last a week or longer, potentially through the weekend, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune tries to navigate Trump's insistence on the issue and Democrats’ united opposition. Trump has urged Thune to scrap the legislative filibuster, which triggers a 60-vote threshold in the 100-member Senate, or find another workaround to pass the bill, but Thune has repeatedly said he doesn’t have the votes to do that.
The floor debate for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known as the SAVE America Act or the SAVE Act, is expected to eventually end with a failed vote. Republicans need 60 votes to advance the bill to a final vote, but they only hold 53 seats. All 45 Democrats and both independents, who caucus with the Democrats, oppose it.
Still, the debate will “put Democrats on the record,” Thune said last week.
Creating strict voter registration rules
Trump says that Democrats can only win in the midterms if they cheat and explicitly said Republicans need the SAVE America Act to win in November. The House passed the legislation earlier this year, but the Senate turned to other issues as it became clear that Republicans didn’t have the votes to pass it.
But Trump made clear he wasn't satisfied and pushed the Senate to act. The Republican president has said he won't sign other legislation, including a bipartisan housing bill backed by the White House, until the voting bill passes.
The bill contains a slew of provisions aimed at quashing any voter fraud. It would require voters nationwide to provide proof of citizenship when they register and to show accepted voter identification when casting a ballot.
It would also create new penalties for election workers who register voters without proof of citizenship and require states to hand voter data over to the Department of Homeland Security so federal officials could screen for voters who are in the country illegally.
Trump also wants new provisions added to the bill, including a ban on most mail-in ballots.
