Republicans defend, Democrats vilify GOP voter ID bill

(The Center Square) – As a marathon debate over the SAVE America Act continues in the U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats are sparring over whether the voter ID bill would strengthen election security or discourage potential voters.

“The SAVE America Act embodied the mantra often used in this town and elsewhere that we want to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. You have to have both of those; if you neglect either one, you’re going to create problems,” U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, an avid supporter of the House-passed bill, told reporters Thursday.

“If you prefer the former while shunning the latter, you will in fact succeed in making it easy to vote. But that sort of betrays and diminishes the whole point of having free and fair elections, and it makes them impossible,” he added.

The SAVE America Act would mandate that Americans display a valid ID to vote in federal elections, require people to present proof of citizenship when registering to vote, and necessitate in-person voter registration for...