Republicans quietly thumb nose at key part of Trump's voting agenda in his own home state
President Donald Trump's adopted home state of Florida is one of the few that appears on track to pass its own state-level version of the SAVE America Act, the national legislation Trump is demanding that would add show-your-papers requirements to registering to vote, and impose such strict voter ID requirements that even most driver's licenses wouldn't be sufficient.
However, according to Politico, Florida Republicans conspicuously chose to leave a very key aspect of the bill out, despite Trump's insistence that it is critical.
Namely, said the report, "Florida legislators ... made no changes to the state’s excuse-free use of mail-in voting, despite Trump’s continued call for strict limits." Trump has repeatedly claimed that voting by mail is full of fraud and constantly rigged against the GOP, with no evidence to support this.
The bill, which is now headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis' desk, is already facing legal threats, per the report: "Democrats and voting groups contend that the changes — which would apply to the 2028 presidential elections — could keep thousands of voters from the polls. Prominent Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias was already suggesting online that his organization would challenge the measure."
The proof-of-citizenship requirements in the bill would not take effect until next January, if adopted.
At the national level, Republicans do not have the votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. Trump has leaned more and more aggressively on the GOP to find a way around it, and has even threatened to boycott the entire legislative process until the SAVE America Act lands on his desk.