Most Americans back Voter ID Laws, but Democratic Senators remain opposed

Daily News Article   —   Posted on February 9, 2026

A vast majority of Americans — including Democrats and ethnic minorities — favor requiring photo identification (ID) to vote, according to an analysis from CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten.

The data undercuts claims by some Democratic lawmakers that voter ID laws are broadly unpopular and intended to disenfranchise non-white voters.

Speaking during a Feb. 3 segment on CNN, Enten cited recent Pew Research Center surveys showing 83% overall support for photo voter ID requirements. Support has remained consistently above 75% since 2018, the data suggest.

The data also indicate strong bipartisan agreement: About 95% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats support showing photo ID to vote.

Enten emphasized that support cuts across racial and ethnic lines, with 76% approval among Black Americans, 82% among Latinos, and 85% among white voters.

“So the bottom line is this: Voter ID is not controversial in this country,” Enten said. “A photo ID to vote is not controversial in this country. It is not controversial by party, and it is not controversial by race.”

Despite polling showing that close to three-quarters of their voters back it, top Democratic lawmakers are digging their heels in opposition to the proposed federal voter identification requirement,

“It’s Jim Crow* 2.0,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in an interview last week when presented with that polling data and asked about his opposition to the Republicans’ Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. [*The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation and voter disenfranchisement of Black Americans. They were officially abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which eliminated barriers that prevented African Americans from voting].

The Republicans’ SAVE Act, which has already cleared the House, would require voters nationwide to show proof of citizenship in order to cast their ballot. Democrats are leveraging the 60-vote filibuster to block it in the Senate.

“I called it Jim Crow 2.0, and the right wing went nuts all over the internet. That’s because they know it’s true. What they’re trying to do here is the same thing that was done in the South for decades to prevent people of color from voting,” Schumer added.

Schumer [and other Democrats in Congress] argued that the measure would potentially [prevent] women who get married and change their last name, and individuals who have lost track of their birth certificates from voting.

The top Senate Democrat predicted the SAVE Act wouldn’t get any Democratic votes.

“It’s still going to be something that disenfranchises people that don’t have the proper real ID, driver’s license ID, that don’t have the ID necessary to vote even though they are citizens,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday when asked [if he will still vote against it, despite Democratic voters’ support for the requirement].

“This is another way to simply suppress the vote,” Schiff insisted.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” last Sunday: “What Republicans are trying to do is to engage in clear and blatant voter suppression, and they know that if there’s a free and fair election in November, they’re going to lose,” he added.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) [the only Democrat to do so fully] backed voter ID laws, telling Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”: “[requiring photo ID to vote is] not Jim Crow or anything….But as a Democrat, I do not believe it’s radical or extreme to require ID to vote, overall.”  It’s not fully clear where he stands on the SAVE Act, though he has predicted it won’t clear the Senate.

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week on a new bill (the Save America Act) that would require all states to check both citizenship and photo identification before allowing voters to cast ballots, combining two widely popular election integrity provisions and ramping up pressure on a Senate that has been unwilling to consider either mandate.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, confirmed in an interview Wednesday evening with Just the News that the vote will be held this week for the Save America Act, which combines the two requirements that have passed the House individually but not received a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Roy is the chief sponsor of the legislation in the House, joined by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in the Senate.

“I’m announcing that we are bringing Chip’s bill, the Save America Act, to the House floor next week,” Scalise said in an interview. “So it’s on the floor, and everybody’s got to pick a side: do you want to make sure that only American citizens vote in elections and that you have to show an ID to vote?”

Roy called on Republican Senate Leader John Thune to change the filibuster rules in the Senate …to give Republicans a chance to eventually get the legislation passed over Democrat opposition before the 2026 election.

“I just hope, once we move it through the House next week, that leader Thune will force a talking filibuster to get us to have a real fight over in the Senate. But right now, our first job is to get it through the House,” he said.

The House passed Roy’s SAVE Act in April, which would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act to ensure states require documentation of a person’s U.S. citizenship before registering to vote in federal elections. However, the legislation did not require voters to present photo identification. This new bill [the Save America Act] will require all states to check both citizenship and photo identification. (Read the full bill at congress.gov.)

Excerpted from articles published at NY Post, Zeal .com and Just the News on Feb. 8, 2026. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.