Voter ID and citizenship to register

The statute has not passed. Democracy Docket reported that on September 30, 2026 a Senate vote to advance a photo-ID bill failed 53–47. Every Democrat and both independents voted no. Fifty-three is a majority. It is not 60, which is what it takes to end a filibuster. The same outlet notes that the larger SAVE America Act has repeatedly died the same way, even after House passage.

That outlet advocates against these bills. The vote arithmetic does not depend on its politics. Republicans hold 53 seats. Unless seven Democrats or independents cross over, or the Senate changes its rules, this bill does not become law. It also does not fit in reconciliation. Voter qualifications are not a budget item.

A different tool did move. NPR, September 25, 2026: the Supreme Court allowed the administration to resume using an expanded Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database — SAVE — to check voter rolls, after a district judge had stopped it. The majority said the injunction was blocking individualized checks that federal law allows during the pre-election window. The three liberal justices dissented. Justice Jackson wrote that the majority was ignoring the risk of flagging eligible voters, including people naturalized recently. NPR notes the tool has mistakenly flagged eligible voters. The administration told the Court it had run more than 65 million records and flagged 28,635 as potential noncitizens. That figure is the administration’s filing, not an NPR audit.