Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump very much wants the SAVE America Act, which would make it very difficult for 20 million eligible voters who lack proper ID to actually vote and would put barriers up for other voters as well. It would also restrict absentee voting and cause problems for married women whose current name is not the one on their birth certificate. Trump believes the Act would hurt Democrats more than it hurts Republicans, but that is not certain. For example, with gas over $4/gal., rural Trump voters who have to drive many miles to get to a polling place, rather than voting by mail, might decide to skip voting to avoid the expense. But Trump doesn't let go of ideas easily. It's easy to understand why—He has so few of them.
Now he wants the Senate to abolish the filibuster to get the Act through that chamber. He renewed that call on Satuday. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) does not want to abolish the filibuster (because he has been around long enough to know that some day, Democrats will have the trifecta again). He also does not want to force the Democrats to actually stand there and read plays about King Lear, King Richard II, King Henry VI, and other mad kings. Washington has already had its fill of mad kings this year. Thune's nominal argument is that a talking filibuster would paralyze the Senate for months. In reality, he doesn't have a long legislative list teed up and is just worried about what the Democrats might do if they get the trifecta in 2029 and the filibuster is but a distant memory. Republicans don't mind the filibuster at all, because the only thing they really want to do is cut taxes and they can do that using the budget reconciliation process. In contrast, the Democrats have a long wish list of legislation about democracy, health care, abortion, and much more, so the filibuster is a huge barrier for them.
On the other hand, killing the filibuster would still require a majority in the Senate. Republicans do have 53 seats, but it is not clear there are 51 votes for the bill, and thus for a rule change on the filibuster. If four Republicans are not on board, it will fail. Last week, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) sponsored an amendment to add the core elements of the SAVE America Act to the budget reconciliation bill Republicans are concocting. Four Republican senators voted against the amendment and it failed. They were Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Thom Tillis (R-NC). All of them had their own reasons, but the votes weren't there for the amendment and probably wouldn't be there for a stand-alone bill or the filibuster rule change. Collins is in a very tight election in a blue state and has to worry about the vote being the end of her career. McConnell knows the Senate rules backwards and forwards and knows election procedures are not allowed in reconciliation bills. Murkowski represents a large, far-flung state were many people need to vote absentee because getting to the polls is so difficult. Tillis probably wants his legacy to be that at least at the end, he supported good government and democracy.
Although Trump will probably continue to bellow for a while, it looks like the SAVE America Act is dead for the time being. (V)