Photo courtesy/U.S. Senate U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito spoke on the floor late Thursday evening in support of the SAVE America Act.

CHARLESTON – A vote was expected in the U.S. Senate Thursday to overcome a filibuster on a key elections bill, but U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said lawmakers need to come together in a bipartisan compromise and also come to the table to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

Speaking to West Virginia reporters during a Thursday morning conference call from her Capitol Hill office, Capito said she supports the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which is also called the SAVE America Act.

Supported by President Donald Trump, the bill would require voters to show proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, in order to register to vote. Those wishing to register would need to bring their documents in person to a county clerk’s office instead of registering through the mail or online.

The bill requires photo IDs in order to vote. According to the legislation, those using state-issued REAL ID for drivers’ licenses and photo IDs would be able to vote, but only as long as those REAL IDs indicate the citizenship status of the individual. The bill would allow for a narrow list of other acceptable photo IDs, though it limits the use of others, such as student IDs.

“This is just common sense. It’s accountability,” Capito said. “Most of it is what we already do in West Virginia. It’s voter ID, which we already have in West Virginia. It’s also a proof of citizenship that you’re voting. I think West Virginians in great numbers would say that’s common sense.”

West Virginia has had a voter ID law in place since 2017, but last year the law was narrowed to allow only the use of a driver’s license or state-issued ID; a driver’s license from another state; a U.S. passport or passport card; an employee ID issued by a state, local or federal government; a student photo ID issued by a high school or institution of higher learning; a U.S. military ID; a photo voter registration card issued by a county clerk or the Secretary of State’s Office; or an ID issued by the Division of Motor Vehicles without a photo due to the individual being part of a religious community that prohibits them from being photographed.

A 2024 survey by the Brennan Center for Justice, VoteRiders and the University of Maryland estimated that 21 million citizens in the U.S. do not have ready access to a passport or birth certificate. It is also already illegal for a non-citizen to vote in U.S. elections, though states enforce this in different ways.

But Capito said the provision requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote makes sense given the years during former president Joe Biden’s term when illegal immigration into the nation broke records.

“We don’t want folks that are here illegally,” Capito said. “We know we had 10 million (who) came across the border over the last four years. And we want to have, make sure that we have the certainty that our elections are safe and secure and that Americans who need to vote or want to vote are the ones that actually are voting and legitimately.”

Capito also said the SAVE America Act still leaves enforcement of these provisions up to state and local elections officials.

“It’s not a federalization of elections as it’s been characterized,” she said. “This basically says that we want to have secure elections, and these are the federal parameters for the federal elections.”

Under the proposed law, states would be required to turn over voter registration information to the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Justice is suing several states, including West Virginia, that refused to turn over these records when requested recently.

In order to have a full vote on the SAVE America Act, 60 votes are required to invoke cloture and overcome a filibuster. Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said his caucus would not support the cloture vote.

“Republicans want to waste yet another day on a radical piece of legislation that hardly anyone outside of the MAGA fringe even cares about,” he said. “The Democrats’ position has not changed. If Republicans want to waste the Senate’s time debating this bill, so be it … but we will continue to expose just how radical and ugly it is.

“The longer the SAVE Act stays before the Senate, the more obvious it becomes that it is not a voter ID bill; it’s a voter suppression bill, a voter purge bill,” Schumer continued. “The SAVE Act says no more vote-by-mail, no more driver’s licenses to register, no registering online or on campus or at church. Republicans want to make Americans pass through the eye of a needle just to exercise your fundamental right to vote.”

The bill has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Trump has threatened to not sign any bills passed by Congress (except for any bill funding the Department of Homeland Security) until he gets the SAVE America Act. However, Capito said she would not support any effort to end the filibuster.

“I signed a letter saying that I would not break the filibuster, and I intend to stay with that, but I don’t think we’re going to get to that point on this bill as to whether we vote on that or not,” Capito said. “In the end, we’re hoping to have a bipartisan product.”

Capito also called on the Democratic minority to come to the table to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down since Feb. 14 when lawmakers could not agree on funding as Democrats demanded changes to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, both part of the department. The DHS shutdown is beginning to affect federal disaster relief, immigration enforcement, and travel.

“This is a dangerous situation,” Capito said. “Chuck Schumer and his party are really putting this country, I think, at risk by not funding our FEMA, by not funding the Coast Guard, by not funding our TSA agents. We know that about 10% (of TSA workers) are beginning to walk off the job. It’s spring break. It’s Easter. Lots of families traveling. But also some of the investigative capacities at Homeland Security are in a stall and they’re not being paid. So, this is a disturbance, I think, to the country.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com