A Senate Republican revealed that even if President Donald Trump’s flagship election integrity legislation had the votes to pass, there’s not enough time to actually have it take effect for the upcoming midterm elections.The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act has increasingly become a problem for congressional Republicans desperate to move onto other must-pass legislation.But Trump has consistently demanded they find a way to pass it, particularly in the Senate, by any means necessary.But Republicans aren’t unified behind the bill, and Democrats unanimously despise it.
Even if it got 60 votes, which is an unlikely scenario, Sen.Thom Tillis, R-N.C., contended it wouldn’t have an impact in time for November.GOP INFIGHTING OVER TRUMP'S VOTER ID BILL ERUPTS AS TOP SENATOR CALLS STRATEGY 'FANTASY'Sen.
Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said the SAVE America Act lacks time and funding to implement voter ID provisions before midterm elections.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)"Unless they do the work to get to the 60 votes, they know it’s dead, and so all this is theater," Tillis told the Raleigh, North Carolina-based News & Observer.Tillis, who was one of four Senate Republicans to vote against attaching the legislation to an immigration enforcement funding bill last month and was called out by Trump, is familiar with pushing for voter ID laws, which is only a portion of what the proposed SAVE America Act would do.
During his time as House speaker in the North Carolina legislature, he was a major proponent of enacting the state’s voter ID.But doing so takes time and money, he argued.'IT'S A MESS': GOP TURNS ON HOUSE CONSERVATIVES AS VOTER ID BLOCKADE STALLS TRUMP'S AGENDA"And honestly, here in North Carolina, or in virtually any state, the ability, if we go back to when we implemented voter ID in North Carolina, it took a year to get everything in place with adequate funding," Tillis said.The current version of the SAV...