President Donald Trump‘s push to pass the SAVE America Act is about “stealing” November’s midterm elections, according to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).
Markey, who is facing a primary challenge for his Senate seat from Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), repeated his contention on Thursday during their final debate before Tuesday’s election.
“I say impeach Trump,” Markey said. “He must be held accountable, and he’s also planning on stealing the election. That’s what the SAVE America Act is all about. It’s all about stealing the election this fall.”
Markey made the argument amid his allegations of Trump’s “corruption,” reiterating that Democrats need to win majorities in Congress “to ensure that Donald Trump, and his family, and his cronies are held accountable beginning [on] Jan. 1 of next year.”
“This man is an absolute criminal sitting in the Oval Office, a walking, talking constitutional crisis,” he said. “He must be impeached.”
But Markey’s contention coincides with increased warnings from Democrats that Trump is preparing to challenge election results this fall, particularly after the president’s primetime address about election integrity last month.
“Trump and Republicans continue to lay the groundwork for interfering with the midterm elections in an attempt to cling to power,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin wrote in a statement at the time. “Make no mistake: while Trump pushes our democracy to its limits in a desperate attempt to hold on to power, Democrats are fighting back to win elections, protect voting rights, and hold Trump and Republicans accountable.”
The SAVE America Act would compel voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a photo ID when casting a ballot.
However, even if the Senate were to pass the House-cleared legislation, regardless of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) remaining adamant that he does not have the votes for it, it would be unlikely to be introduced in time for the November elections.
After the 2006 Supreme Court case Purcell v. Gonzalez, federal courts have refrained from reforming voting and election laws too close to an election to avoid confusing voters or creating chaos.
“If for some reason it were to pass, I am very confident at this late date, less than 100 days before the election, it would be blocked,” Center for Election Innovation and Research founder David Becker told the Washington Examiner earlier this month. “There’s no way to implement it. And it would be hard to implement two years before an election; it’s impossible to implement three months before an election, and so there’s just no … realistic path for it to impact the 2026 elections.”
Markey has been polling ahead of Moulton before Tuesday’s primary election, with Markey having 52% support to Moulton’s 38% in a Boston Globe-Suffolk University poll published last week.