[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 130 (Friday, August 7, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S4556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




AMENDING THE HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002 TO REQUIRE VOTERS TO PROVIDE 
                PHOTO IDENTIFICATION--Motion to Proceed

  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 547, S. 
5271.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant executive clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 547, S. 5271, a bill to 
     amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voters to 
     provide photo identification.


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The senior assistant executive clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 547, S. 5271, a bill to amend the 
     Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voters to provide 
     photo identification.
         John Thune, Jon A. Husted, Steve Daines, John R. Curtis, 
           Bill Cassidy, Katie Boyd Britt, Bernie Moreno, James E. 
           Risch, Pete Ricketts, John Barrasso, John Cornyn, Mike 
           Crapo, Mike Rounds, James C. Justice, David McCormick, 
           Tom Cotton, Ted Budd.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. HUSTED. Madam President, using a photo ID to vote is common 
sense. It is an issue Americans broadly support. So tonight, this early 
morning, I am offering a clean, simple straightforward bill to require 
a photo ID to vote in America.
  Voters can use a driver's license, a state-issued ID, passport, 
military or veterans ID, or Tribal ID. No additional restrictions. No 
tricks. No games. No prohibitions on absentee voting.
  Thirty-six States require some form of photo ID. Photo ID laws have 
been tested in elections across this country, and they work. So 
tonight, I am asking my colleagues to answer one simple question: 
Should you have to prove who you are when you vote?
  Americans think we should, and tonight, we will find out if their 
Senators agree. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this bill to 
establish nationwide photo ID standards and give Americans better-run 
and honest and fair elections.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, colleagues, here we are after months 
and months and months of continuing to debate this bill, which still 
hasn't passed. We should be debating how to bring costs down for 
working families across the country.
  I would love to hear from my colleagues how we are going to get out 
of this war in Iran. Instead, here is this measure again, which is not 
a simple voter ID bill. As written, it is stricter than most voter ID 
bills in States that already have a voter ID law in place.
  But this goes even further, requiring voters to include a copy of 
their ID when they vote by mail, as well as tens of millions of 
Americans who vote by mail. This bill would do away with secret ballots 
as we know it. So colleagues, I urge you to vote no on this measure.


                             Vote on Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the mandatory quorum 
call under rule XXII has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
motion to proceed to Calendar No. 547, S. 5271, a bill to amend the 
Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voters to provide photo 
identification, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant executive clerk called the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Welch) is 
necessary absent.
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 52, nays 46, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 231 Leg.]

                                YEAS--52

     Armstrong
     Banks
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Boozman
     Britt
     Budd
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Curtis
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Husted
     Hyde-Smith
     Johnson
     Justice
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McCormick
     Moody
     Moran
     Moreno
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Ricketts
     Risch
     Rounds
     Schmitt
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Sheehy
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Tuberville
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--46

     Alsobrooks
     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt Rochester
     Booker
     Cantwell
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Fetterman
     Gallego
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Kaine
     Kelly
     Kim
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lujan
     Markey
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schiff
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Slotkin
     Smith
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     McConnell
     Welch
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 
46.
  Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted 
in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.
  The motion was rejected.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

                          ____________________