Some Republicans hope stricter election laws will take precedence in GOP-led Washington

WASHINGTON (TNND) — On Friday, the 119th Congress will be sworn in, giving Republicans slim majorities in both the House and Senate. It will also give President-elect Donald Trump considerable latitude to carry out conservative agendawhich may include changes to federal election laws.

Republican lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully this Congress to pass legislation requiring voters to show proof of citizenship and tightening voter ID laws in federal elections.

Conservatives have also gone after municipalities allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections.

“American elections are for American citizens, and we intend to keep them that way,” Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) said during a speech on the floor in July, in which he argued that Americans had lost faith in the integrity of national elections .

“My Republican colleagues and friends are crying foul about a lack of trust that they are guilty of creating in the first place,” Rep. Joe Morelle (DN.Y.) said earlier this year.

After losing the 2020 election, Trump spent years baselessly claiming that the US voting system was riddled with fraud.

“What the hell is going on inside these cars?” Trump told the crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan on the eve of this year’s Election Day.

Those claims stopped when it was clear he had won.

“Otherwise, this ‘crisis’ quote is a byproduct of the GOP’s complicity in former President Trump’s big lie,” Morelle said.

Civil rights groups and most Democrats argue that Republican-backed voting reforms are unnecessarily prohibitive, especially since cases of voter fraud and illegal votes by non-citizens are extremely rare.

Even the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation found fewer than 75 cases of fraud nationwide in each of the last three presidential elections.

Finally, the Constitution gives the states, not Congress, the primary authority over the administration of elections. Plus, Republican most will be thinso they will almost certainly have to compromise with Democrats to pass this type of legislation.