Donald Trump calls for vote review as GOP-led Congress prepares to act

ATLANTA: Republicans plan to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation’s voting procedures, seeing an opportunity with control of the White House and both houses of Congress to push through long-sought changes that include voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements.

They say the measures are needed to restore public confidence in elections, an erosion of trust that Democrats note was fueled by false claims by President-elect Donald Trump and his allies of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. in the new year, Republicans will be under pressure to respond to Trump’s wishes to change the way US elections are conducted, something he continues to promote despite his November win.

The main legislation Republicans expect to advance will be versions of the American Confidence in Elections Act and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, said GOP Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Committee on Administration, which handles election-related legislation. The proposals are known as the ACE and SAVE Acts respectively.

“As we look into the new year with unified Republican government, we have a real opportunity to move these pieces of legislation not only out of committee, but out of the House and into law,” Steil said in an interview. “We need to improve Americans’ confidence in elections.”

Republicans will likely face opposition from Democrats and have little room to operate with their narrow majorities in both the House and Senate. Steil said he expects there to be “some reforms and changes” to the initial proposals and hopes Democrats will work with Republicans to refine them and ultimately support them.

Democrats want to make voting easier, not harder

Rep. New York Joe Morelle, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said there was an opportunity for bipartisan agreement on some issues, but said the previous two GOP bills went too far.

“Our vision and the Republicans’ view is very different on this point,” Morelle said. “They’ve spent most of their time over the last two years and beyond really limiting people’s rights to get to the ballot — and that’s at the state and federal level. And the SAVE Act and the ACE Act both do that — they make it harder for people to vote.”

Morelle said he wants to see both parties support dedicated federal funding for election offices. He sees other bipartisan opportunities in limiting foreign money in U.S. elections and possibly imposing a voter ID requirement if certain safeguards are in place to protect voters.

Democrats say some state laws are too restrictive in limiting the types of ID acceptable for voting, making it harder for students or those who lack a permanent address.

Morelle said he was disappointed by GOP claims in this year’s campaigns about widespread noncitizen voting, which is extremely rare, and noted how those claims all but evaporated once Trump won. Voting by non-citizens is already illegal and can lead to felony charges and deportation.

“You haven’t heard a word about it since Election Day,” Morelle said. “It’s a miracle on Election Day that suddenly the thing that they spent an inordinate amount of time describing as a rampant problem, an epidemic problem, didn’t exist at all.”

GOP: Current voter registration is based on an ‘honor system’

Before the November election, House Republicans pushed through the SAVE Act, which passed the House in July but stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate. It requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and includes potential penalties for election officials who fail to confirm eligibility.

Republicans say the current process is based on what they call a loopholed honor system that has allowed noncitizens to register and vote in past elections. While voting by non-citizens has occurred, research and analysis of state cases have shown that it is rare and usually a mistake rather than an intentional effort to influence the election.

Under the current system, those who want to register are required to provide either a state driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. A few states require a full social security number.

Republicans say the voter registration process isn’t tight enough because in many states people can be added to voter rolls even if they don’t provide that information, and some noncitizens can get Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. They believe that the current requirement that anyone filling out a voter registration form sign under oath that they are a US citizen is not enough.

They want to force states to reject any voter registration application for which proof of citizenship is not provided. Republicans say that could include a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, passport or birth certificate.

A state flags non-citizens with regular audits

In Georgia, a perennial presidential battleground state, election officials said they encountered no hiccups in verifying the citizenship status of nearly 7.3 million registered voters. They conducted an audit in 2022 that identified 1,634 people who tried to register but could not be verified as US citizens by a federal database.

A second audit this year used local court records to identify people who said they couldn’t serve as jurors because they weren’t a U.S. citizen. Of the 20 people identified, six were investigated for illegal voting, although one of those cases was closed because the person had since died.

“What we’ve done with these audits is to give voters confidence that we don’t have citizens voting here in Georgia,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “And when society is very polarized, you have to look at building trust. Trust is the gold standard.”

Raffensperger, a Republican who supports both voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements, credits the state’s early adoption of REAL ID and the use of automatic voter registration to ensure voter rolls are accurate. The latter is something he hopes more Republicans will consider, as he has argued that he has allowed Georgia election officials to use the agency’s motor vehicle process to verify citizenship and track people moving in and around the state .

“You have to get it right because you’re talking about people’s priceless franchise to vote,” Raffensperger said.

View states as laboratories for voting reforms

If Congress passes any changes, it will be up to election officials across the country to implement them.

Raffensperger and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said it would be a mistake to move the country to a single voting day, which Trump has said he would like to see happen because it would eliminate early voting and limit access to postal ballots. Both methods are extremely popular with voters. In Georgia, 71 percent of voters in November cast their ballots in person before Election Day.

Both said they hope lawmakers will look at what’s working in their states and build on those successes.

“We’ve proven time and time again in our states that our elections are safe and accurate,” Benson said.