Just when Republicans appeared ready to notch another win on election integrity, four familiar GOP moderates teamed up with Democrats to kneecap a voter ID measure backed by President Trump — triggering a furious response from Sen. Josh Hawley.
The Missouri Republican unloaded after Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina crossed party lines during a marathon Senate voting session to help defeat an amendment that would have added the SAVE Act’s election-security provisions to a major Republican funding package.
For Hawley, the vote wasn’t merely another procedural setback. It was a baffling rejection of one of the most popular election reforms in America.
“I guess it’s frustration,” Hawley said. “Listen, we’ve been doing this in Missouri for years. I mean voters in my state put it in our constitution.
“Voter ID is the most popular thing out there,” Hawley continued. “There’s a reason for that. People want their elections to be safe, they want them to be fair. And to me, you can’t explain it to me, why you wouldn’t vote for voter ID. I just don’t understand it.”
The amendment’s defeat marks yet another roadblock for supporters of nationwide voter verification requirements, despite years of polling showing broad public support for requiring identification at the ballot box. Numerous surveys over the past decade have found voter ID laws receiving backing from majorities of Republicans, independents and even significant numbers of Democrats.
The proposal would have required proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections and photo identification when casting a federal ballot — measures supporters argue are common-sense safeguards rather than controversial restrictions.
But opponents insisted election administration should remain largely in the hands of individual states, arguing Washington should not dictate voter ID standards nationwide.
Hawley wasn’t buying it. “We make federal rules all the time for elections, you know,” he said. “I mean all the time we do. And there’s nothing more basic than protecting the integrity of the ballot and that’s what this is about.”
His argument reflects a long-standing reality: Congress has repeatedly stepped into election law, from voting rights legislation to campaign finance rules to reforms governing the certification of presidential elections. Yet when it comes to requiring proof of citizenship and identification, suddenly some lawmakers claim federal involvement is off-limits.
Critics of the SAVE Act warn that documentation requirements could create hurdles for some voters. Supporters counter that virtually every aspect of modern life — from boarding airplanes to opening bank accounts to purchasing age-restricted products — already requires proof of identity.
Hawley also pointed to the growing number of states that have embraced voter ID requirements without the electoral apocalypse predicted by opponents. “37 states have voter ID already including several blue states,” he said. “So I think this idea that this is like ‘this is weird, this is exotic, this is out there,’ no it’s not. Like most of our states do it.”
For now, the amendment is dead. But Hawley predicts the issue isn’t going away anytime soon. “Sooner or later this is going to happen because I think the American people are going to demand it.”
