Mike Pence calls for national voter ID law in exclusive interview
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SPECIAL: Former Vice President Mike Pence says a national voter ID law is “an idea whose time has truly come.”
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Pence called on the Senate to “make voter ID the law of the land in all 50 states.” The Senate is currently debating the SAVE America Act, which has been strongly advocated by Pence’s former boss, President Donald Trump.
The SAVE Act, which stands for Protecting American Voter Eligibility, narrowly passed the GOP-controlled House in February, mostly along party lines. However, things remained deadlocked in the Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the chamber and are well below the 60-vote threshold required to pass the bill.
The federal bill would mandate strict voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements across the country. Republicans say the bill is necessary to ensure election integrity.
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Supporters of the SAVE Act, a federal bill mandating strict voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements across the country, attend a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on September 10, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“I just think requiring our voters to show photo ID or proof of American citizenship at the ballot box is an idea whose time has come,” Pence said. he emphasized.
And the former Indiana governor added: “I’m proud that 15 years ago the state of Indiana was one of the first states to adopt voter ID laws. I went all the way to the United States Supreme Court and it was approved. It became the model law for many states across the country.”
While polls show that the vast majority of Americans — regardless of political affiliation — support voter ID at the polls and bar non-citizens from voting in federal elections, Democrats argue the bill is not needed because citizenship is already a requirement to vote and instances of non-citizen voting are rare.
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Democrats and voting rights groups also argue that the federal bill would make it harder for voters to vote by creating unnecessary barriers. And longtime Senate Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York framed the SAVINGS Act as “Jim Crow 2.0.”
“Under the Constitution, the time, place, and manner of elections are governed by the states. But under our Constitution, the federal government has the authority to set certain conditions and parameters, and I believe the Save ACT falls well within the scope of Congress’s constitutional prerogative,” Pence said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence interviews Fox News Digital in Washington, D.C. on March 18, 2026 (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
The former vice president urged Congress last month to pass the bill through his policy and advocacy organization Advancing American Freedom.
Pence reiterated his stance in a Fox News Digital interview, saying: “We have supported the Save America Act since it was first introduced and will continue to support it. I urge every member of the Senate to put politics aside and vote to restore public confidence in election integrity in this country.”
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Pence earned the ire of Trump supporters five years ago by rejecting the president’s unproven claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and certifying former President Joe Biden’s electoral college victory. The certification was overturned for hours by the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, where some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”
Supporters of President Donald Trump gather outside the US Capitol before storming the building in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021 (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
“We all remember the election debates six years ago. In the midst of COVID, we saw states that literally changed the rules on how votes were counted,” Pence recalled. “There was no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election, but it eroded public trust and is one of the reasons we strongly support election reform in states across the country.”
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And the former vice president reiterated: “I truly believe that making sure the American people have confidence that voters are citizens of this country and that voter ID will become the law of this land is an idea whose time has come.”
