Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., warned Thursday that if the House sends the Senate a reconciliation bill containing the SAVE America Act, he "will use every device I have available to slow down the wheels of government until people cop a clue and do the math."

Tillis, who is not seeking reelection to a third term and has repeatedly broken with the Trump administration on major issues, reiterated concerns he raised earlier this month, when he said the voter ID bill was "dead" because no state could implement the new requirements before the Nov. 3 election, even if it won 60 votes in the Senate.

But if the House attaches the SAVE America Act to a reconciliation bill, the GOP-led Senate could pass the package with a simple majority, provided the measure complies with the chamber's reconciliation rules.

Reconciliation bills generally can pass the Senate with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes typically needed to overcome a filibuster, although provisions must comply with the chamber's reconciliation rules.

"What we're 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," Tillis said in a fiery floor speech. "That is irresponsible. If you see voting improprieties in your state, report them. 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've got 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."

Tillis repeatedly pointed to his experience helping implement voter ID in North Carolina while serving as the state's House speaker.

He described the wide range of state and local agencies that administer elections and would have to rush to implement new voter ID requirements. He also argued Congress would not have enough time to finalize the legislation before states would need to begin putting it into effect.

"I have been trying to explain for nearly a year that the SAVE Act, whether it's the SAVE Act, the SAVE America Act, the new SAVE legislation that's 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," Tillis said.

Tillis said he supported a grant program to states that would encourage them to implement voter ID rules and penalize them with audits if they don't. But he said reconciliation is not the right vehicle.

"Let's stop the charade. Let's stop the distraction," he said. "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."