U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) this week warned the proposed SAVE America Act could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, calling the legislation a sweeping rollback of voting rights disguised as an election integrity measure.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Padilla — California’s former secretary of state — argued that the bill would reject commonly accepted identification including driver’s licenses, require states to hand unredacted voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security, and trigger mass voter purges based on federal database errors.
He cited data from states already participating in similar programs: in some jurisdictions, between one-quarter and one-half of voters flagged for removal were, in fact, eligible U.S. citizens. The bill, he said, would disproportionately affect married women who have changed their names, mail-in voters, and citizens without the specific documents it demands.
“This bill is anything but a voter ID bill. Nothing is more fundamental in our democracy than the right to vote. We will do everything in our power to protect it.”
Padilla drew a direct line between the SAVE America Act and the civil rights battles that produced the Voting Rights Act, invoking President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 call for equal voting access following the violence of Bloody Sunday. The bill, he said, would turn back the clock on hard-won protections.
Republicans backing the legislation say the documentation and data-sharing requirements are necessary to protect election integrity. Padilla and voting rights advocates counter that the bill lacks the precision and transparency that accurate voter rolls require.
Padilla has spent the past year filing legal briefs, convening public forums, and introducing legislation to limit voter roll removals. His Senate floor remarks mark the latest escalation in that campaign.
