Cantwell Statement on Vote Against “Trojan Horse” Extreme Voter ID Bill

Cantwell Statement on Vote Against "Trojan Horse" Extreme Voter ID Bill

WASHINGTON, DC - Yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted against advancing a bill that would have imposed new and onerous voter identification laws making it harder for students and tribal members to vote. The disenfranchising provision was included in a partisan bill that would not have prohibited members of Congress from owning individual stocks and would have done nothing to address stock trading or financial conflicts of interest members of the executive and judicial branches from doing the same.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) voted against the bill. She issued the following statement:

"Yesterday, we voted down yet another bill that would attack voting rights and vote-by-mail. Republicans used a weak, loophole-filled anti-corruption bill as a Trojan Horse in order to shove through extreme new voter ID rules that would interfere with mail-in voting and disenfranchise Americans, particularly tribal members and students."

In addition to trying yet again to impose additional restrictions on voting, the partisan bill would do nothing to address financial activity and conflicts of interest issues in the executive branch. Republicans brought the bill to a vote two weeks after news reports showed that since the start of his second term, President Donald Trump has made nearly 28,700 stock trades - more trades than every Member of Congress combined. In July 2026 alone, President Trump made more than 1,000 stock trades, worth between $79 million and $280 million. Last year - the day before President Trump announced he was pausing his wide-ranging tariffs - he made 327 individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million. The next day, according to news reports, "the S&P 500 went up by nearly 10 percent, one of its largest one-day increases ever." Moreover, In his first year in office, he made at least $2.2 billion in revenue, including about $1.4 billion from his cryptocurrency business. Yet the bill considered today would do nothing to address these massive and unprecedented financial conflicts of interest.

Many good government groups and organizations that support voting rights opposed the partisan bill, both because of its inadequate ethics provisions and its disenfranchising impact on voters. Groups opposed to the bill include, among others, The Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights, Rock the Vote, National Immigration Law Center, ACLU, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy 21, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), Common Cause, Campaign Legal Center, Public Citizen, Americans for Financial Reform, Demand Progress, Democracy Defenders Action, End Citizens United, IssueOne, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, P Street, and RepresentUs.

Sen. Cantwell remains a stalwart defender of our free and fair elections:

• On Sept. 28, Sen. Cantwell joined her colleagues in introducing bicameral legislation to protect voters and election workers from intimidation and threats of violence at polling places.
• On Sep. 8, Sen. Cantwell joined 260 of her colleagues - including all Senate Democrats and current and former members of the House of Representatives - in filing a bipartisan, bicameral amicus brief with the Supreme Court in a case challenging the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) attempt to impose new requirements that would have interfered with vote-by-mail in Washington state and nationwide. On Sep. 15, the Supreme Court agreed with the lawmakers' position and refused to reverse a lower-court ruling that blocked the USPS from implementing the onerous new requirements. In denying the stay, the Supreme Court let stand a preliminary injunction issued by a federal district court in two related cases - one brought by Washington along with other states - against the USPS rule for the upcoming election. In a statement on the Supreme Court's ruling, Sen. Cantwell highlighted that the district court had found "on one side, that immediate implementation of the Final Rule issued less than seventy days before the November 2026 election threatens disenfranchisement of millions of United States citizens who seek to vote by mail and, on the other side, that the record includes no evidence relating to fraudulent mail voting to support the rushed implementation of the Final Rule" and granted the preliminary injunction."
• On Sep. 2, Sen. Cantwell held a press conference in Seattle to warn Washington voters about Administration efforts to undermine their right to vote. That same day Sen. Cantwell and Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs released a snapshot report showing that late-postmark rejection rates have more than doubled in 19 counties compared to the 2024 primaries - with rural counties worst affected -- following a new Trump Administration policy that can delay postmarking of mail-in ballots by several days.
• On August 5, she sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin demanding the Trump Administration adhere to the National Voter Registration Act's (NVRA) "quiet period" that prohibits systematic voter purges within 90 days of an election, pushing back against the Administration's ongoing voter suppression efforts.
• On July 29, she wrote to Blanche, Mullin, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanding to know whether the Trump administration plans to illegally deploy armed federal law enforcement officers at polling sites during the November 2026 elections.
• On July 28, Sen. Cantwell sharply criticized the Trump administration's request that the Supreme Court allow him to seize control of state-run elections and implement an anti-vote-by-mail executive order. Lower courts have repeatedly rejected the president's arguments and stated that his executive order is unconstitutional.
• On July 2, Sen. Cantwell sent a letter to the Postmaster General about the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) proposed illegal rule to implement President Trump's March 31 executive order to interfere with vote-by-mail. Sen. Cantwell's letter specifically noted the recent decisions of multiple federal courts that found Trump's executive order unconstitutional and enjoined the USPS from implementing the proposed rule - including in separate cases brought by the State of Washington with other states and the NAACP - and demanded the USPS comply with those court orders.
• On June 29, she celebrated the Supreme Court's ruling in Watson v. Republican National Committee against an effort to stop states from counting mail-in ballots that are received after Election Day, even if they've been postmarked in time. The case, brought by the Republican National Committee, threatened the election administration practices of states like Washington.
• On June 24, Sen. Cantwell co-sponsored the Right To Vote Act, legislation to create the first-ever affirmative federal voting rights guarantee for all eligible citizens.
• On June 24, she also denounced President Trump's announcement that he would not sign the 21^st Century Road to Housing Act - an overwhelmingly popular, bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate earlier in the week and would have increased housing supply and brought down housing costs - until Congress passes the SAVE America Act. That legislation, which Trump has repeatedly demanded, would eliminate vote-by-mail and impose onerous new restrictions on voting and registering to vote. It would disenfranchise millions of Americans in the name of a voter fraud "crisis" that, even by the standards of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, straightforwardly does not exist. President Trump again demanded Congress pass the restrictive bill following the Supreme Court's ruling in Watson v. Republican National Committee. Despite President Trump's refusal to sign the bipartisan housing bill, it became law on July 11, since he failed to act on the bill within the time period prescribed by the Constitution after Congress sent him the legislation.
• On June 23, she joined the entire Democratic Caucus in sending a letter to the USPS demanding the USPS abandon attempts to restrict voting by mail called for by President Trump in an illegal and unconstitutional March 31 executive order attacking mail and absentee ballots.
• On June 23, she also delivered a speech on the Senate floor calling out the Trump Administration's war on mail-in voting as the latest frontier in a long history of voter disenfranchisement in the United States.
• On June 17, she joined several of her Senate Democratic colleagues for a spotlight forum highlighting President Trump's illegal overreach into our free and fair elections.
• On June 8, she joined 23 of her Senate colleagues in demanding answers over the Trump Administration's decision to remove the most recent version of the Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses manual from DOJ's website without explanation.
• On April 29, she was tapped by Minority Leader Schumer to join a task force of senators defending our elections from interference.
• On April 23, she joined colleagues in introducing the Absentee and Mail Voter Protection Act to protect the right to vote by mail and block President Trump's illegal and unconstitutional March 31 executive order attacking mail and absentee ballots.
• On April 22, she sent a letter to the USPS warning the agency against complying with the executive order, which would undermine mail-in voting.
• On April 1, after the executive order on mail-in voting was announced, she issued a statement in opposition.
• On March 18, she convened a group of current and former elected officials and representatives of nonpartisan voter advocacy groups for a virtual press conference on defending voter access. Video of that entire virtual press conference is HERE; video of Sen. Cantwell's statement is HERE; and a transcript of Sen. Cantwell's statement is HERE.
• On March 15, she issued a snapshot report showing that the SAVE America Act - the voter suppression bill President Trump has continued to demand Congress pass - would cost Washington state taxpayers more than $35 million this year alone.
• On Feb. 20, she convened local leaders in Seattle for a press conference urging Washingtonians to fight back against these proposed new burdens to voting.
• On Feb. 19, she gathered in Vancouver with the Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey and local chapter heads of the League of Women Voters and the NAACP for a press conference on how this bill would disenfranchise voters.
• Also on Feb. 19, she released a snapshot report showing who in Washington would face undue hurdles to voting if the SAVE America Act were signed into law. The report shows that certain populations - including people who live in rural areas, women who changed their name after marriage, and people who recently moved - would face additional, cumbersome burdens to prove their citizenship.
• On Feb. 5, she appeared on MSNOW's Morning Joe to push back against the Trump administration's heightened efforts to interfere in state-run elections and collect private data on American voters. Video of Sen. Cantwell's appearance is HERE; a transcript is HERE.
• On Jan. 29, Sen. Cantwell joined Senate colleagues in a letter to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, pushing DOJ to stop its unlawful pressure campaign to coerce dozens of states into providing the Trump Administration their voter rolls, which include voters' personally identifiable information.
• On Jan. 15, she joined Senate colleagues in a letter to USPS Postmaster General David Steiner raising concerns with recent developments affecting postmark practices. Right before the holiday season, USPS changed its postmark practices, which the Senators warned could have significant impacts on voters nationwide and in Washington state - including rural voters, military and overseas voters, and many others who rely on rely on the mail to safely and securely cast their ballot.
• On Jan. 9, she joined 13 Senate colleagues in filing an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in the case Watson v. Republican National Committee.