Voters spared as Senate recesses without passing SAVE America Act’s voter ID measure

By Brentin Mock

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 21: U.S. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) speaks during a Senate Appropriations committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. Members of the Trump administration appeared before the committee to request supplemental funding amid a recent escalation in the war with Iran. (Photo by Finn Gomez/Getty Images)

Senate Republicans failed to pass a truncated version of the SAVE America Act before going into recess early Saturday morning. The measure would have made voters show photo identification to cast ballots.

The failed bill, which required a narrow set of photo IDs for voter eligibility, could have prevented millions of people from voting in November’s midterms, according to election experts, and made it difficult to cast ballots for many more. 

Senate Republican leaders realized Friday night that they did not have the votes to pass the full SAVE America Act legislation, which also requires proof of citizenship to register voters and a broad scaling back of mail voting. Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) made a deal with President Donald Trump to instead vote on Sen. Jon Husted’s (R-Ohio) bill that focuses solely on new voter photo ID requirements.

The bill failed with only 52 Republicans voting for it, well short of the 60-vote threshold needed. Two senators – Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) – did not vote. The rest of the Democrats voted against it. 

The GOP leaders agreed to attempt to vote on the full SAVE America Act bill when the Senate reconvenes in early September.

“Tragically, the SAVE America vote on the voter ID component failed,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on X just after the vote. “We’re gonna have to keep fighting on that one. We’re not done. We’re just getting started.”

Lee has been one of the staunchest supporters of the SAVE America Act, but the bill has failed in the Senate at least five times this year, including when it was attached to budget reconciliation bills.

Some Republicans wanted the Senate to bypass recess until the SAVE America Act was passed, but there wasn’t enough support among their party for that either.

Despite the fact that Trump and some GOP leaders have declared the legislation a priority, there doesn’t appear to be a significant appetite for it among voters. It ranked fifth in importance among those surveyed in a recent Marquette Law School Poll.

The Senate did pass bills early this morning to fund the government through December 11, and to confirm Trump’s former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche as attorney general.