This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. President, Claims · 34 wordsAmerican voters deserve to have an election system that they can trust. Fair, safe, secure elections are a key hallmark of any society’s ability to be able to claim the status of democratic self-rule. Reasoning · 23 wordsIf you don’t have safe, secure, independent, reliable elections, you have a widespread set of problems that will cascade and ultimately constrain liberty. Claims · 18 wordsAmericans intuitively understand this. But at the moment, our elections are far less secure than they should be.Off point Procedure · 2 wordsWhy? Well, ProcedureClaims · 10 wordsbecause so much of it operates on the honor system. Reasoning · 68 wordsNow, an honor system is great. It works well if you are dealing with a smaller group of people, a closed-loop system in which everyone knows everyone else. And the honor system works well also if you don’t have a real risk of somebody claiming to be someone they are not and if they don’t have the ability to inflict harm on those who play by the rules. Claims · 152 wordsIt is one of many reasons why there are a whole host of activities that, in our common experience, necessarily require someone to prove that they are who they claim to be. You experience this anytime you go to the bank, when you go to the doctor, to the pharmacy, when you are picking up theater tickets at will call--all kinds of circumstances. And, you know, one of the more familiar ones for Americans who routinely travel by plane is that when going through TSA, you have to prove who you are as well. If you leave the country, whether by land or by sea or by air or some other means, you are likely going to need a passport when you leave the country and when you come back into the country. These are all just a few--many circumstances in which it matters whether you are who you claim to be, Reasoning · 23 wordsso much so that it is important that you do more than just say: Trust me. I am who I claim to be. Claims · 27 wordsIn the context of voting, sometimes we will refer to this as self- attestation, which is just a fancy way of saying it is the honor system: Reasoning · 9 wordsTrust me. I am who I claim to be. Claims · 236 wordsBut, look, with good reason, it is not sufficient, self-attestation. ``Trust me. I am who I claim to be’’ isn’t enough when you board a commercial flight, when you purchase alcohol, or even when you attend the Democratic National Convention. Those are just a few of the circumstances where they don’t allow you to operate on the honor system because they know that it matters whether you are who you claim to be. Now, even for something as simple and relatively low stakes as obtaining the coveted never-ending pasta pass from the Olive Garden-- even there, they don’t allow the honor system. Even there, you have got to produce ID to show that you are who you claim to be. It should not be any easier for someone to get away with voter fraud at a polling location on voting day than it is to cheat the Olive Garden through its never-ending pasta pass--and yet that is exactly where we are today. We allow the honor system. Even though we have laws that prohibit things like noncitizen voting, those laws have been rendered difficult--essentially impossible--to enforce, as against those who would abuse self-attestation in countless circumstances. Those are being revealed; Hidden agencythose are becoming known. That thing that they claim never happens--voter fraud or noncitizen voting-- just keeps happening over and over and over again--especially for something that many like to claim never happens. Well, it does, Promise · 11 wordsand we need to take steps to prevent it from happening.Vague promise Claims · 131 wordsThat is why I introduced the SAVE America Act. The SAVE America Act has two fundamental objectives--two very basic unassailable objectives: Let’s make it easy to vote and let’s make it hard to cheat. We have got to have both of those. The SAVE America Act does that through two different mechanisms: One, it requires, at the time of a new voter registration, for you to establish that you are, in fact, a U.S. citizen.1 And, second, it requires that on election day, at the time of voting, you show up with a photo ID--with a photo identification--so that you can prove that you are who you claim to be.2 Both of these things would make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.Logical leap You have to have both of them. Reasoning · 38 wordsIf you just make it easy to vote and don’t make it hard to cheat, you are going to have that much more incentive and opportunity for someone to cheat, and we don’t want that in this country. Claims · 43 wordsAmericans overwhelmingly support voter ID laws for that reason. We are talking 83 percent of Americans, give or take a percentage point or two, depending on the poll.3 But Americans, by a margin of more than 4 to 1, favor voter ID laws, 4Promise · 5 wordsand we need one here. Claims · 142 wordsNow, with the SAVE America Act, we have heard some objections; we have heard some arguments. Nearly all of those arguments focus on the first component of the SAVE America Act. And at times when the SAVE America Act has been the pending business before the Senate floor, as it was just a few months ago, the arguments that we heard--probably somewhere between 95 and 99 percent of the arguments--coming from Democrats against the SAVE America Act were focused on the voter registration component: having to establish proof of citizenship beyond self-attestation at the time of a new voter registration. Now, those arguments were ill-founded. In every single circumstance, they were founded in something that resulted from a mischaracterization of law, a mischaracterization of fact, or, in many circumstances, both. They were not well founded, but they were often and strongly expressed. Anecdote · 129 wordsIt is one of the reasons why my friend and colleague, the Senator from Ohio, Senator Jon Husted and I were talking one day, a few months ago, and decided: Let’s try an experiment. Let’s see what would happen. Given that nearly every one of their arguments coming from the other side of the aisle against the SAVE America Act is focused not on the voter ID component but, rather, on the voter-registration proof-of- citizenship component, let’s run with something. Let’s introduce something that would just contain the voter ID component of the SAVE America Act--this, after all, would help us figure out where the weaknesses are, what can pass and what can’t pass--given that they almost never have argued against voter ID while opposing the SAVE America Act.Anecdote Claims · 39 wordsAnd, in fact, many, if not most, of my Democrat colleagues in the U.S. Senate, at one point or another, in the very recent past-- many of them this year, in fact--have said that they support voter ID laws. Anecdote · 17 wordsSo let’s introduce something that just focuses on the voter ID component of the SAVE America Act.Anecdote Claims · 29 wordsNow, this bill--and, again, this overall approach--is one that Americans overwhelmingly support. We are talking 83, 84 percent of all Americans--Democrat, Republican, Independent, everybody mixed in. They support this. Procedure · 2 wordsWhy? Well, ProcedureReasoning · 9 wordsbecause it is good common sense. Everybody understands it. Claims · 145 wordsThere are myriad circumstances in which it matters whether you are who you claim to be, and nowhere is that more important to the proper functioning of our constitutional Republic than it is in the context of voting and having secure elections. We have also seen that the need for these things has been enhanced dramatically in recent years, not only with the flood of noncitizens entering this country--we have now got, I think, between 30 and 35 million noncitizens residing in this country.510 It is now easier than ever for them, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s botched interpretation of the National Voter Registration Act. Over the strong dissent of Justice Alito, the Supreme Court essentially told the States that absent new Federal legislation--legislation in the form of the SAVE America Act--self-attestation is essentially sufficient in that circumstance.6 So Americans overwhelmingly accept this. Procedure · 5 wordsThis is a rare issue.Procedure Reasoning · 8 wordsNow, bipartisanship is not itself all that rare, Claims · 19 wordsbut bipartisanship to this degree--we are talking 83, 84 percent of all Americans agreeing with something like this--is significant. Procedure · 5 wordsThat doesn’t happen every day.Procedure Claims · 200 wordsWhat is even more unusual, though, is when you have an issue where 83, 84 percent of all Americans strongly support a position, as they do in the case of voter ID laws, but then that overwhelming support doesn’t match what elected Federal lawmakers believe. So it is not 83 or 84 percent that Members of this body support that. No, it is much closer to 50-50, and it breaks down almost perfectly along partisan lines. So there is a real disparity here. Americans overwhelmingly support voter ID, but in this body, it is a different matchup. But, look, what we have done is we have taken the least controversial part of the SAVE America Act, put it into this legislation sponsored by Senator Jon Husted, drawn from my bill, the SAVE America Act, just the voter ID component, the most popular form of it--the argument that very, very few Democrats have focused on when opposing the SAVE America Act--and let’s push this forward. It is also significant that my friend and colleague Senator Husted was himself a former top elections official in the State of Ohio.7 He understands the importance of voter ID and wants to move that forward, Thanks · 27 wordsand I applaud and congratulate him for his many efforts in support of the SAVE America Act and this narrower subset of this, which he has introduced.Thanks Positioning · 22 wordsIt is unthinkable, really, that any lawmaker--Democrat, Republican, or otherwise--would oppose something like this. And you have to wonder why--why oppose it?Positioning Reasoning · 35 wordsWhy oppose it any more than you would claim that it would be unfair that you can’t withdraw money from a bank account without ID or you can’t board an aircraft without a photo ID? Promise · 25 wordsThis approach, the self-attestation approach--the ``trust me, bro’’ approach--does not, should not, must not be allowed to work in the context of our sacred elections. Positioning · 13 wordsIt is not good for America to not have these laws in place.Positioning Claims · 58 wordsIt is especially bad for America when, in some States--including and especially the State of California--not only do they not require voter ID, but, as I understand it, they have a law in place that imposes a penalty--I believe it is a criminal penalty--if you even ask someone about an ID on election day at a voting place.8 Positioning · 10 wordsThis is crazy. It is upside down. It is backward.Positioning Promise · 24 wordsSo we need a Federal voter ID law, and we can pass one right now. We can pass one right now, and we must.Off pointNo reason given The ask · 52 wordsTo that end, Mr. President, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 547, S.9 5271; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. Procedure · 5 wordsThe PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ricketts).Procedure The question · 3 wordsIs there objection? Procedure · 4 wordsThe Senator from California.Procedure
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