Why my head hurts: This exchange just happened Thursday on the Senate floor. [View all]

Cornyn: “I don’t understand how the SAVE Act disenfranchises voters.”

Durbin: “Happy to explain. Driver’s licenses don’t qualify under the bill. 50% of Americans don’t have passports.”
Cornyn: “Why not just amend it?”

Durbin: “When’s the last time the Senate actually amended a bill?”

Silence.

The SAVE Act requires passport-level documentation to register to vote.

50% of Americans don’t have a passport.

The people least likely to have passports: the elderly, the poor, rural Americans, young first-time voters.

The people most likely to have passports: wealthy Americans.

This is not voter protection. This is voter selection.

And when a senator suggested fixing it — his own colleague couldn’t name the last time the Senate amended anything.

That’s the Senate in 2026.

My thanks to Brian Allen
@allenanalysis