00:00Mr. President.
00:01Senator Ohio.
00:03Thank you, Mr. President.
00:04I've greatly valued the opportunity to join my colleagues tonight
00:09in discussing the Save America Act, many aspects to the bill,
00:13but I want to focus on the elections integrity aspect of the bill.
00:18The people of Ohio have twice trusted me as their chief elections officer,
00:24having served two terms as Ohio's Secretary of State.
00:27In that time, I oversaw the presidential elections of 2012, 2016,
00:34also the midterm elections in 2014 and 2018,
00:40as well as many primaries, local elections, and special elections.
00:43I'll tell you all that because I know how to administer elections.
00:46I've done it.
00:47When Ohio was a very purple state, we were the focus of the nation.
00:50I administered those elections.
00:54And I made my mission clear to make Ohio a state where it was easy to vote and hard to
00:59cheat.
01:00That's the balance we're all trying to achieve.
01:02We want voters to cast ballots.
01:04We also want them to do it in a manner that is not a burden to them.
01:11And I'm going to explain why photo ID is not a burden to voters.
01:15And actually, in the end, it's an enhancement.
01:18In Ohio, we implemented the photo ID requirement at the polls.
01:23And with the photo ID requirement intact, there was no evidence of voter suppression.
01:31In fact, with all of those election integrity measures in place,
01:36in the 2024 presidential election, we produced the highest, the second highest turnout in the last four presidential elections.
01:43So the bottom line is, the evidence suggests that the inclusion of photo ID actually is no impediment
01:51and, frankly, could be argued, makes the system easy to understand and enhances turnout.
01:59Photo ID doesn't just protect election integrity, though.
02:05It does more.
02:07It makes our elections work better.
02:10And I want to make this case to my colleagues tonight
02:14that if you don't want photo ID because you don't believe it's important for election integrity
02:20and you don't think that election integrity is enough of a reason to do it,
02:24well, I'm going to point to the fact that voter ID also provides an ease for election administration.
02:35It makes it run better.
02:37It makes it run better.
02:38And I'm going to give you a prime example of this.
02:40Look at what happened in California's recent elections.
02:44We all remember what happened there.
02:48Some of the state's most important races took more than a week to determine the outcome,
02:54and officials spent weeks finishing the count.
02:57And during that time, the reported leaders in each election and those very close races changed several times.
03:06You would hear reports.
03:08Well, this candidate's up.
03:09Now this candidate's up.
03:10This candidate's in the lead.
03:11And then all of a sudden, they lose.
03:15Every additional day in that debate that went on for over a week about who actually won those elections undermines
03:22confidence in those elections.
03:26That speculation, justified or not, creates and undermines election confidence
03:32when voters have to wait for more than a week to get an answer about who won an election.
03:38And I asked a California official why.
03:42Why did it take so long to count votes in California?
03:47The answer I frankly found pretty astonishing.
03:54This individual said the answer was simple.
03:56Every mail-in ballot has to go through a manual signature comparison with the signature on file.
04:03So let me explain what that means.
04:06Instead of asking a voter to present a secure photo ID, which would clear it up right at the very
04:11beginning,
04:12California asks thousands of election workers to spend days trying to determine whether two signatures match or not.
04:21That's their system for determining who, whether or not the individual voting is actually the right person.
04:32California turns election workers into handwriting experts when the rest of America has settled on a far, far simpler way
04:41to verify identity, and that's photo ID.
04:44We don't need to make the election workers handwriting experts.
04:49We can just simply show a photo ID and say, hey, we know who the person is casting the ballot.
04:54They're a valid voter. Let's give them a ballot.
04:59It's been said many times, but please, we ask for a photo ID when we get on a plane.
05:04We ask for a photo ID when we open a bank account to rent a car, to check into a
05:09hotel, buy alcohol, get prescription medications.
05:12This is not a burden on the American people.
05:15But when it comes to protecting the most fundamental right or democracy, some states still rely on comparing signatures by
05:23hand.
05:23That defies common sense.
05:27A secure photo ID is faster. It's simpler. It's more objective.
05:32It helps elections officials do their jobs more efficiently, delivers results more quickly,
05:36and gives Americans greater confidence that the eligible voter casting the ballot can legally cast that ballot and have it
05:46counted.
05:48Election laws should make it easy to vote and hard to cheat, and requiring a photo ID does both.
05:53It's pretty simple. It protects the integrity of our elections, approves the efficiency of our election systems,
06:00and strengthens the public confidence in the outcome.
06:04And I tell you, I've heard many Democrats say that they don't support the Save America Act.
06:14However, I did listen to the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, say that their objection as Democrats is not to photo
06:20ID.
06:21Again, I listened carefully to my colleagues, try to pay attention, to get clues from them about what they might
06:28support.
06:29And when the minority leader said that they didn't oppose photo ID, I thought that would be a great opportunity
06:36to take a simple slice of the Save America Act, photo ID, put that together in a bill, present it.
06:43And clearly, based on his comments, I thought we would get bipartisan support.
06:50But that wasn't true, apparently, because even after we proposed that legislation, he objected to it.
06:59I have and will continue to give my colleagues on both sides of the aisle the option to put their
07:05words into action.
07:06I have and will continue to put forward a clean, simple, straightforward bill to require photo ID in American elections.
07:13Nothing more.
07:14It works in 36 states.
07:16And I promise you, in states like California, where they have no photo ID law, it takes weeks to count
07:24ballots that their elections not only will have greater integrity, but their elections will be administered much more efficiently.
07:32And believe me, the vast American, there's no more unifying issue for Americans on election integrity than photo ID.
07:41The vast majority of American people support requiring a photo ID.
07:45You see it poll after poll after poll.
07:48The vast majority of Americans think it's just common sense because they do it every single day as they live
07:54their lives and conduct business.
07:56Americans deserve confidence in elections supported by election integrity measures like photo ID.
08:02We can make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.
08:05Passing photo ID requirements are common sense.
08:07It's the right thing to do for election integrity and the right thing to do for voter confidence.
08:12And, Mr. President, I will close with this.
08:15This is a rare bipartisan issue for Americans.
08:18It's rare that you have Americans in this polarized world that we live in that can all say, Democrats, Republicans,
08:25and independents, that we support the idea of photo ID for election integrity.
08:31They've united around it.
08:33And I think all of our constituents are wondering why we can't pass this simple legislation.
08:40I hear it all the time as I'm traveling across Ohio.
08:43Voters say, hey, pass photo ID.
08:46Pass the Save America Act.
08:47You can do this.
08:48We should do this.
08:49I agree.
08:50I think I've voted for it six times already.
08:52I look forward to voting for seven, eight, nine, how many times it ever takes to get it done.
08:56We'll get it done.
08:57If a few of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would join us in supporting the will
09:02of the American people, we could get it done sooner.
09:04We can give the American people election integrity, efficient administration elections, and boost public confidence in elections.
09:12And ultimately, more trust in our elections gives us more trust in the government of the people that were elected.
09:20Let's get this done.
09:22It's long past time to get the photo ID portion of Save America past.
09:28Let's do it.
09:29The time is now.
09:31Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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