Trump’s bill to rig the midterm election, the SAVE Act, is officially dead because Senate Republicans won’t change the filibuster to pass it.
The Republican legislation goes way beyond a vote ID requirement to force citizens to provide documentation to register to vote in a move that would disenfranchise lower-income persons and women whose names change through marriage or divorce, among other Americans.
The SAVE Act could disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans, which is why Democrats in the House and Senate refuse to support it.
Without Democratic support in the Senate, the legislation can’t overcome a filibuster, which requires 60 votes to move a bill forward.
Republicans in the House and Senate know that they can’t get the 60 votes, so Trump and some of his allies in Congress got the idea that the Senate should change the filibuster.
Outside of Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and a few outliers, the idea of changing the filibuster is extremely unpopular among Senate Republicans.
The reason is that the filibuster gives Senators, even when they are in the minority, the power to stop legislation from advancing.
Senate Republicans view Trump’s short-sighted thinking as a path to disaster if Democrats ever take back the Senate majority.
This protection of personal power has major consequences for Trump’s effort to rig the midterm election.
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