House Republicans to Introduce Voting Reform Bill With Voter ID, Proof of Citizenship Rules

The Make Elections Great Again Act would also require states to use auditable paper ballots.

Voting booths are set up at a polling place in Newtown, Pa., on April 23, 2024. Matt Rourke/AP Photo

House Republicans on Jan. 29 said they plan to roll out a comprehensive election reform bill that would set requirements for elections, including for photo IDs and proof of citizenship.

House Administration Committee Chair Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) said the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act aims to prevent election fraud and will be introduced during the House’s pro-forma session on Jan. 30.

“Americans should be confident their elections are being run with integrity – including commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls, and citizenship verification,” Steil said in a statement.

“These reforms will improve voter confidence, bolster election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.”

The bill, if passed, would require voters to show photo identification when casting ballots and verify their citizenship during registration.

It would also mandate that mail-in ballots be received by the close of polls on election day and require states to use auditable paper ballots.

Under the legislation, it would be “unlawful for an individual to distribute, order, request, deliver, or possess” a ballot belonging to another person who is not an immediate family member or caregiver.

It would also prohibit people from delivering more than four mail-in ballots at a time, except for incidental possession by postal workers or election officials.

In addition, the bill would tighten routine voter list maintenance requirements, ban universal vote by mail, and prohibit states from using a voting system that allows voters to choose more than one candidate or rank multiple candidates for the same office.

Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the Democratic Party’s top lawmaker on the House Administration Committee, opposed the bill and accused House Republicans of trying to “rig the system so they can choose their voters.”

“This bill is their latest attempt to block millions of Americans from exercising their right to vote,” Morelle said in a statement. “I will fight this bill at every turn.”

A voter shows his photo identification to poll workers as he arrives to cast his midterm election ballot in New York City on Nov. 8, 2022. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

The MEGA Act is backed by several election advocacy groups, including America’s First Policy Institute (AFPI), which said the bill includes requirements that will prevent noncitizens from voting in U.S. elections.

“As an American citizen, casting a ballot is a civic duty, a unique privilege, and a fundamental right to help determine who represents you in government and who will stand for your ideas, values, and freedom,” AFPI’s chair of election integrity, Kenneth Blackwell, said in a statement.

“And that right, which men and women have died on foreign battlefields to protect, is discarded when noncitizens are allowed to vote.”

Election Transparency Initiative National Chairman Ken Cuccinelli said the omnibus would make voting “accessible for eligible citizens while closing loopholes that invite abuse, by banning ballot harvesting, stopping taxpayer-funded partisan registration schemes, and requiring auditable paper ballots.”