BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA
House Republicans are preparing to roll out a sweeping package of proposed changes to U.S. election laws, advancing a long-standing priority of President Donald Trump that would tighten voting requirements nationwide ahead of the fall midterm elections.
The legislation, expected to be released Thursday, reflects many of the party’s most sought-after election policy goals. Among its central provisions are new mandates requiring voters to present photo identification, stronger requirements for states to verify citizenship during voter registration, and prohibitions on universal vote-by-mail systems and ranked choice voting. Both voting methods have gained traction in a number of states in recent years, particularly in response to the pandemic and voter demand for expanded access.
Trump, who continues to claim without evidence that the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was rigged, has repeatedly called for changes to how elections are conducted. Republicans backing the new proposal argue that the measures are necessary to restore public trust in the electoral process.
“Americans should be confident their elections are being run with integrity, including commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls and citizenship verification,” Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the House Administration Committee, said in a statement announcing the initiative.
Steil added that the reforms are designed to “improve voter confidence, bolster election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat,” language that echoes long-running Republican messaging on election security.
The bill, which Republicans are calling the “Make Elections Great Again Act,” is intended to establish what supporters describe as a minimum national standard for federal elections. According to a one-page summary circulated by Republican lawmakers, the legislation would require states to ensure voters present valid photo identification at the polls and to verify citizenship at the time of registration. It would also mandate the use of auditable paper ballots, a practice already in place in many states.
In addition, the proposal would restrict how mail-in ballots are counted. Only ballots received by the close of polls on Election Day would be eligible to be tallied, with a limited exception for overseas military personnel. The legislation would bar states from automatically mailing ballots to all registered voters, effectively banning universal vote-by-mail systems that have been adopted in states such as Oregon and Washington. Ranked choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates by preference, would also be prohibited in federal elections.
Despite Republican enthusiasm, the legislation faces steep odds in a narrowly divided Congress. Democrats have consistently opposed similar proposals, arguing that stricter identification and registration requirements would disenfranchise eligible voters, particularly minorities, low-income individuals, the elderly and people who move frequently.
Voting rights advocates have also raised alarms, warning that proof-of-citizenship requirements could prevent millions of Americans from casting ballots. Critics point to past efforts that required citizenship documentation, noting that married women whose legal names differ from those on birth certificates or other records could face obstacles to voting.
A 2023 report by the Brennan Center for Justice and other organizations estimated that roughly 9% of voting-age U.S. citizens — about 21.3 million people — do not have immediate access to documents proving their citizenship. The report also found that nearly half of Americans do not possess a U.S. passport, which is often cited as one of the most straightforward forms of proof.
The renewed legislative push comes as the Trump administration has intensified its focus on election-related issues ahead of November, when control of Congress is on the line. This week, federal agents conducted a search of election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, which includes most of Atlanta, seeking ballots from the 2020 election. The action followed comments by Trump earlier this month suggesting that new charges connected to that election could be forthcoming.
Trump has repeatedly signaled his desire to reshape the nation’s election system. Last year, he issued an executive order imposing new election-related requirements, including a citizenship mandate for voters. House Republicans subsequently passed legislation aimed at codifying that order into law, though the measure stalled in the Senate. Lawmakers have recently begun reviving efforts to bring that proposal back for consideration.
As debate over election rules intensifies, the Republican-led effort sets the stage for a broader fight over voting access and election administration, an issue that is once again poised to play a central role in the upcoming election cycle.
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