Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was confronted by a poll that found a majority of Americans support requiring photo ID to vote — which the liberal senator said would disenfranchise voters.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl began by asking Schiff about whether Democrats and Republicans could reach a compromise on supporting showing photo ID when voting, as Republicans are pushing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. Some Democrats are comparing the SAVE Act to “Jim Crow 2.0.”
“Jonathan, what you’ve just asked is essentially: Republicans have created distrust in the elections by making claims of nonexistent fraud in the elections, and shouldn’t we use the distrust they’ve created in order to enact a voter suppression law, which is the SAVE Act, which would require people to have a birth certificate or passport — documents that millions of Americans don’t have. Almost half the country doesn’t have a passport, and I don’t know where many millions of people would even find a birth certificate,” Schiff responded.
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Karl said he was asking Schiff a different question, specifically about whether he would support photo ID.
“But I was asking you a different question: photo ID. Because, as you know, let’s show there was a recent poll, there’s been a lot of polls on this, but in one recent Pew poll, 83% of adults support requiring photo ID to vote. Seventy-one percent of Democrats favor requiring photo ID,” Karl said. “Is that something that you can support? And if not, why?”
Schiff argued that it would still “disenfranchise” people.
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“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. This is another way to simply try to suppress the vote,” Schiff said.
The Pew Research poll, conducted in August 2025, found that 95% of Republicans support showing identification to vote.
Schiff added, “And the last thing I think we want to do is discourage more citizens from voting while they’re attacking those same elections, while they’re trying to do away with absentee ballot voting, while they’re trying to do away with being able to register to vote through the DMV or by the mail. So, it’s part of the broader disenfranchisement effort, and no, I don’t think that’s the right direction.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said that the SAVE Act represented “Jim Crow 2.0.”
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“For instance, if you change — you’re a woman who got married and changed your last name, you won’t be able to show ID, and you’ll be discriminated against. If you can’t find a birth certificate, or a proper ID, you’ll be discriminated against. This is vicious and nasty. And I said to our Republican colleagues, it will not pass the Senate. You will not get a single Democratic vote in the Senate. We’re not reviving Jim Crow all over the country. And when the American people hear what exactly it is doing, and what its intent is doing, they’re going to be against it as well,” Schumer said during an appearance on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday.
