WATCH: Padilla Stops Senate Passage of SAVE Act That Would Disenfranchise Millions of Americans
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California’s former Secretary of State, blocked Senator Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) attempts to unanimously pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would lead to the disenfranchisement of millions of eligible American citizens if passed. Padilla blasted the overly burdensome documentation requirements in the SAVE Act, which would make registration harder for new voters, married women, rural voters, servicemembers, communities of color, and the tens of millions of Americans who register to vote online or by mail.
Lee’s harmful proposal came in response to Senator Padilla’s attempt to pass the Including New Voters In The Electorate (INVITE) Act by unanimous consent to improve voter registration services at naturalization ceremonies. In responding to Lee’s objection, Padilla emphasized that Congress should try to make voting easier for eligible American citizens, not harder. He also debunked misinformation about widespread voter fraud, highlighting that voter fraud is extremely rare.
A review of the 2016 general election found that only 0.0001 percent of votes came from improper noncitizen voting among the jurisdictions reviewed.
Key Excerpts:
- “It is a solution in search of a problem. Audit after audit, review after review, investigation after investigation, has demonstrated that the instances of ineligible immigrants voting in elections is exceedingly, exceedingly, exceedingly rare, which again, means our current laws are working.”
- “To suggest that birth certificates be required for a certain task when it’s already secure — I don’t make it a habit of walking around with my birth certificate in my pocket. A passport’s another acceptable form of documentation for citizenship. Half the American public doesn’t have a current valid passport because not everybody travels abroad on a regular basis. So they’re unnecessary. Our current laws are working, and therefore I object.”
Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump and Republicans’ reckless attempts to restrict the right to vote. Last week, he convened a Rules Committee Democrats spotlight hearing focused on Congressional Republicans’ SAVE Act and Trump’s illegal anti-voter executive order, both of which threaten to disenfranchise millions of eligible American citizens. As President Trump marked 100 disastrous days in office, Padilla led his Democratic colleagues on the Senate floor to speak out against the SAVE Act and the Trump Administration’s attacks on election integrity. Last month, Padilla warned Secretaries of State, Lieutenant Governors, and Chief Election Officials across the country of the devastating potential impacts of the SAVE Act, concerns that have been echoed by top election officials across the country. Padilla also recently led a letter sounding the alarm on the devastating impacts of the SAVE Act and Trump’s illegal anti-voter executive order on Native American voting rights.
Additionally, Padilla led 11 Senators in introducing the Defending America’s Future Elections Act to repeal Trump’s illegal anti-voter executive order and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive voter registration data and state records. Padilla previously led 14 Democratic Senators in calling on Trump to revoke his illegal anti-voter executive order and issued a statement slamming the order when it was announced.
Video of Senator Padilla’s objection to the passage of the SAVE Act is available here.
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