Senate Republicans introduce their own election reform legislation

WASHINGTON — Days before the House is set to take up the sweeping democracy reform package known as HR 1, a handful of GOP senators proposed new legislation to “restore confidence” in American elections.

The Save Democracy Act, which would create nationwide voting restrictions, was introduced Thursday by Rick Scott of Florida, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming — three of the eight Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 election results. Lummis’ homestate colleague John Barrasso is also co-sponsoring the bill, although he did not object to the election certification.

The Republican bill stands about as much chance of passing in the Senate as the doomed HR 1 does. With the filibuster still intact, neither bill is likely to achieve the 60 votes needed to pass, despite new polling that show the public’s growing appetite for reform following the contentious presidential election.

Knowing passage through the 50-50 Senate is an uphill battle for either party’s bill, sponsors of both are leaning into messaging. For Republicans, that’s bolstering election security following an election they claim — despite all evidence to the contrary — was riddled with fraud.

For Democrats, HR 1 is the culmination of years of work building support for democracy reform and its enactmeent would be especially important following an election in which many states expanded voting access due to the pandemic. The wide-ranging reform package would ease access to the ballot box, curb the influence of money in politics, end partisan gerrymandering and strengthen government ethics.

Conversely, the Republican senators’ Save Democracy Act would impose new voter registration requirements, restrict absentee voting access and mandate certain rules around ballot processing and counting.

It would prohibit automatic voter registration — which is currently used by 17 states, plus D.C. Individuals would also need to prove U.S. citizenship and provide their full Social Security number in order to register to vote.

The proposed legislation would also mandate the ballot counting process, once it begins, to be completed without pauses or delays.