Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) won't face North Carolina voters again. He's retiring when his term ends in January, but he's prepared to spend his remaining months blocking Republicans who want stronger election safeguards before November.
Tillis took the Senate floor Thursday morning and attacked the SAVE America Act as impossible to implement before the midterms.
He also warned House Republicans against pursuing another version through budget reconciliation.
His threat went well beyond voting against the measure. Tillis promised to “use every device I have available to slow down the wheels of government” if the House sends over another reconciliation bill.
Read that again: a sitting, departing senator is threatening unrelated government business because his colleagues refuse to accept his timetable.
Tillis mocked the bill's changing versions, joking about “SAVE goes to Hollywood” and “SAVE goes to Hawaii.”
He argued that states couldn't revise registration, identification, and mail-ballot systems within roughly 60 days. From the transcript:
I’m against this proposal because people are selling you a bill of goods. I don’t work in a theoretical world. I work in a practical world. Don’t fool the American people into thinking you can implement something this complex within 60 days. It needed to happen two years ago.
There might be a legitimate concern there, but ridicule and procedural threats are poor substitutes for offering workable language.
The current White House-backed plan requires valid identification before registering for a federal election, documentary proof of citizenship, voter-roll cleanup, and limits on mail ballots, with exceptions for illness, disability, military service, and travel.
President Donald Trump has obviously made passage a leading election-security priority.
Tillis doesn't oppose every part of the proposal. In March, he reminded voters that he co-sponsored the original SAVE Act and supports universal voter ID and proof of citizenship. From the transcript:
We should figure out a way to get every state to voter ID. We should provide grants and say that if you meet the threshold, we’ll help you fund the implementation. If you don’t, we’re going to spend that money auditing your elections. That’s good governance. It gives states the option to increase the integrity of their elections or expect an audit from the federal government.
His objections center on limits affecting states that rely heavily on mail voting, the November deadline, and efforts to bypass the Senate's 60-vote threshold.
Republicans should consider practical warnings from someone who helped pass voter ID as speaker of the North Carolina House. They shouldn't surrender because Tillis threatens to disrupt nominations and Senate business.
Congress routinely gives agencies months or years to implement major laws. Lawmakers could phase in some requirements, provide temporary procedures, or set firm deadlines for later elections. Tillis offered obstruction instead of repair.
His retirement announcement promised him the freedom to call matters as he sees them without worrying about another campaign. Freedom from campaigning also means freedom from accountability at the ballot box. North Carolina voters won't get to judge how he uses his final months.
Tillis can vote no.
He can propose amendments.
He can defend the filibuster and challenge reconciliation under Senate rules.
Threatening to block unrelated government work turns a policy dispute into personal retaliation.
A senator finishing out his last term shouldn't make the rest of Washington crawl behind him. Tillis has identified possible problems in the SAVE America Act, and now he should help fix them or step aside while Republicans who still answer to voters finish the work.
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