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Congressional Daily Record
This section covers nominations, confirmations, or other executive branch business. It mentions members such as Thomas Roland Tillis.
Official title: Voter Identification (Executive Session)
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July 16, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. President, when I was elected in North Carolina and ran the campaign to get us to a majority and become speaker, one of the promises that I made to the people of North Carolina is that we would pass a voter ID bill; we would be smart about it; we would get it cleared through the Obama Justice Department; we would implement it in a methodical fashion so that we could further increase the already acceptable levels of election integrity in North Carolina.
It took a couple of years. It actually took a couple of losses before we got it done, but we got it done. So for anybody to accuse me of saying that I don't like voter ID, you ought to check your facts and take a look at the signature on the law that was ratified by then- Speaker Thom Tillis in the State of North Carolina.
Why do I tell you that? To at least put forth my bona fides with respect to implementing complex legislation. I have been trying to explain for nearly a year that the SAVE Act—whether it is the SAVE Act, the SAVE America Act, the new SAVE legislation that is being proposed in the House, “SAVE Goes to Hollywood,” “SAVE Goes to Hawaii,” whatever the sequels are—all of them are fundamentally flawed and impossible to implement by this election.
Now, let me explain why. In addition to actually having experience with legislating, ratifying, and implementing voter ID law in North Carolina, I also happened to be a partner at Pricewaterhouse, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and IBM Global Business Services. My entire career has been founded on implementation.
it takes to get anything done—even the most simple thing. The reason why businesses pay firms like Pricewaterhouse to do what we do is because details matter, planning matters, execution matters.
whatever the heck they are calling the next thing that they are talking about putting in the reconciliation bill.
elections. There are 41 States that administer at a county level—and I'm doing this to better explain it to my friend the senior Senator from Utah—41 States at the county level. What does that mean? Well, in North Carolina it means that we have 100 counties, and we have the State. We have 101 election entities that would have to implement whatever we put into law in North Carolina.
have almost 4,000—let's narrow it because somebody will say: Oh, you overestimated. We have over 3,000—it is actually somewhere around 3,600—3,000 governmental entities that have to implement the letter of this law, OK?
So we will just go with 3,000. Keep it low. Now, we have nine States that actually administer at the State, county, and municipal level. That actually adds about another 7,000 governmental entities that would have to implement the letter of this law—whatever the law is, all right?
right? We are August, September, October, right? So we have fewer than—let's just call it 100 days before the election. You are telling me that whatever proposal is being considered in the House can come and get done in the House, which it hasn't done, come to the Senate and get passed, go to the President's desk—let's say all of that—let's just say a miracle occurs. We can take it out of the Crock-Pot, put it in the microwave—we get it done in 2 weeks, right? OK. Well, 2 weeks from now happens to be about the first week of August, so that would be August, September, October—3 months after
administered at the State level in time for this election. Well, it can't be implemented on day one, right? South Dakota actually starts voting 46 days before the election.
No. 1, you have got to go back and tell these 10,000 different entities: We don't know what the timing is. We have got to implement this stuff.
requested ballots, the military members overseas that are actually getting teed up with the current laws—that is all off the books, and we are going to get you something new in 60 days.
Folks, I have done implementation work. The math doesn't work. I have to believe that these people who are Ivy League educated, qualified to go to the Supreme Court, can do basic math.
It can't be done. It can't be a serious effort. And if it is a serious effort, I would suggest that they engage somebody who has actually implemented it before, instead of assuming that they can because they simply can't.
And so when I have somebody put a microphone up in my face and say: Why are you against voter ID? I would say: First, do your homework. I ratified it. I fulfilled a promise. We have solid elections in North Carolina.
I am against it because people are selling you a bill of goods. When I had this discussion with the senior Senator from Utah, it was like: Well, you know, I understand that it doesn't work in practice, but it should work in theory.
He didn't say that, but that is effectively how he responded to it. I don't work in a theoretical world. I grew up in a trailer park. I worked as a management consultant. I work in a practical world. And in a practical world, I don't care how much you want voter ID done, the only thing you are going to have in this election is 72 Members of the Senate who already have voter ID in their States—did you know that? You would think that we didn't have any.
Mr. President, 36 States already have voter ID. You want to sit down here and talk about how you upped the bar, and you give people a year or two to get it implemented, fine. But don't fool the American people into thinking you can implement something of this complexity over 60 days. My God, it needed to happen 2 years ago.
recently changed their policy, which I think they should have called for years ago, of mass mailing ballots to everybody, right? This should be fairly simple. You are only going from mass mailing ballots to saying: Hey, we have got to request it, right? They decided to take 3 years to implement that.
I would ask the senior Senator from Utah: Why don't we speed it up? Why don't we do it this year? If we can do something as expansive as all this that they have tried to do in the three different sequels to the SAVE Act, you can certainly do that in Utah, can't you? Because the effect of this bill would be to eliminate it anyway. So get `er done. Do it now. Or let's start being honest with the American people.
We should figure out a way to get every State to get to voter ID. We should put in grants that say: If you hit this threshold, we will help you with the implementation; and if you don't, we are going to spend that money to audit your elections.
That is fine. That is good governance. And that is giving the States the option to decide whether or not they want to up the ante and increase the integrity of their elections or expect an audit from the Federal Government if they don't.
That is what I would be advising my client. This is what I am advising my client right now—the President of the United States—like CEOs that I have advised before: Mr. President, these people are misleading you if they are telling you that this can be implemented by November. The only thing that will occur is an undermining of the integrity of our elections right now.
So, folks from North Carolina, our State motto is “Esse quam videri”—“To be, rather than to seem.” This seems like a legit proposal, but it isn't, and it hasn't been for the last year because you couldn't have gotten it done with 10,000 election entities if we had passed it last July.
So let's be honest with the American people. Let's focus on getting every State to have voter ID. Let's provide funding that lets the States opt into it and have a consequence if they don't in terms of audit. But let's stop the charade. Let's stop the distraction. Let's get the government funded. Let's use reconciliation if we need to, but let's not clog it up with another piece of policy airdropped by a Member of this Senate or the White House that will undermine this bill, undermine what we need to get done before the election.
radically by election day. What we are going to do if we continue down this path is to convince the American people that you can't count on your election results. And that is dangerous. That is irresponsible.
If you see voting improprieties in your State, report it. There are tools right now to investigate them. But don't further undermine the confidence of the American people by saying: My goodness, they can't get this implemented? The election must be invalid.
That is not an America that anybody should sign up for. We ought to do it right, and we have to do the work. So if I see a reconciliation bill come from the House with another failed attempt to confuse this election, I will use every device I have available to slow down the wheels of government until people cop a clue and do the math.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Louisiana.