Senate begins debate on voter ID bill. Sen. Padilla calls it 'dead on arrival'

Mathew Miranda, The Sacramento Bee on Mar 17, 2026

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Senate Democrats, led by California Sen. Alex Padilla, reiterated their opposition to a voter ID bill Tuesday ahead of what is expected to be a prolonged and contentious debate.

The legislation, known as the SAVE America Act, would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, a photo ID to cast a ballot and provide the Department of Homeland Security access to states’ voter rolls.

Democrats have called it an overly restrictive bill that would disenfranchise millions of people who lack documentation like a passport or birth certificate. Republicans have said the measure is a way to shore up voter fraud by noncitizens. Nonpartisan research consistently finds that noncitizen registration and voting is extremely rare.

Senate Republicans, under pressure from President Donald Trump, pushed the legislation forward on Tuesday. GOP leadership has indicated that it could remain on the floor for days, even though it has almost no chance of passing given the widespread Democratic opposition. The bill, which passed narrowly in the House last month, requires 60 votes in the Senate.

At a Tuesday morning news conference, Padilla said Senate Democrats would ensure the legislation is “dead on arrival.”

“We’re going to fight it tooth and nail, prepared to stay here all day and all night or multiple days and multiple nights and even multiple weeks, if necessary, to make sure the Save Act suffers the death that it deserves,” Padilla said at a Tuesday morning news conference.

The debate over the bill comes as Trump pressures Republicans to move legislation, vowing to not sign other bills until it is passed. The president has also urged for additional provisions on the legislation including restrictions on voting by mail and anti-transgender policies. These additions, some of which are opposed by Republicans, further hurt the bill’s likelihood of passing.

“Only sick, demented, or deranged people in the House or Senate could vote against THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. “If they do, each one of these points, separately, will be used against the user in his/her political campaign for office — A guaranteed loss!”

Padilla referenced the president in his comments Tuesday, saying the legislation is an attempt to distract from the “utter failure” of the Trump agenda.

He and other Democrats have said the true intent of the bill is to make it difficult for some Americans to vote and help Republican candidates in the upcoming election. Multiple polls show that the GOP is projected to suffer large losses in November.

“They know that with each passing day, their prospects for November get worse,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York on Tuesday.

A Pew Research poll in August found that 83% of U.S. adults support “requiring all voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote.” But more than 21.3 million eligible voters do not have documents to prove their citizenship or easy access to them, according to research by the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at University of Maryland.

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