Divisive GOP election bill advances to House floor

The House Administration Committee on Thursday advanced a divisive election reform bill that would encourage states to adopt stricter voter ID requirements, force Washington, D.C., to change some election processes and make changes to federal campaign finance rules.

The bill, which is more than 200 pages long, advanced to the House floor by an 8-4 vote, after Republicans rejected dozens of Democratic amendments during an hours-long markup.

Republicans first introduced a version of the bill last year, in response to Democrats’ attempts to pass a sweeping election reform bill that would have expanded federal authority in elections. 

Republicans unveiled the bill at a field hearing Monday in Georgia, where House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) praised the state’s election laws.

The bill also comes as many in the GOP continue pushing false claims about fraud in the 2020 election, although Steil has said work on the bill started before that election took place. 

“This legislation is the most substantive and conservative election integrity legislation that will come before the House in over a generation,” Steil said at a press conference Monday. “We want to make it easy to vote, and hard to cheat.”

Democrats on the committee have fought back against provisions in package. Ranking member Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.) argued the bill would restrict the right to vote for many people of color, jeopardize election security, burden local officials, and bring dark money into the election process, “opening the door to corruption.”

“This legislation is designed to appease extremist election deniers who have spent the last four years attacking our democracy,” Morelle said in a statement.” While this Republican bill would undermine the voice of everyday Americans and instead empower special interests, House Democrats are working to protect and strengthen our democracy.”

The bill would implement several changes to D.C. election laws, including requiring photo IDs to vote, and it would repeal a law that allows noncitizens to vote in local elections.

This provision came under fire during the committee markup. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) tried to strike this section of the bill, saying D.C. residents should be able to govern themselves.

“If elections in Washington, D.C., lack integrity, it is not because of fraud or insecure election procedures. It is because half a million D.C. residents are being denied full voting representation in Congress,” Sewell reportedly said at the committee markup.

The bill, called the American Confidence in Elections Act, would also encourage states that receive elections-related federal grants to implement several changes, several of which would ease audits of elections after the fact. 

States would be required to preserve election materials — such as ballots and ballot envelope images — for 22 months after the election. The bill also allows the federal grant money to fund audits and allows states to implement certain restrictions on “ballot harvesting.” The bill also requires the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to provide data to states looking to check whether registered voters have died. 

The bill also makes certain changes to campaign finance rules, including loosening rules on political party committees coordinating expenditures with candidates, and it would raise contribution limits for political party committees.

Additionally, the bill repeals an executive order from President Biden directing federal agency heads to evaluate ways to promote voter participation and registration. 

Only one Democratic amendment was supported by Republicans. The measure from Rep. Derek Kilmer’s (D-Wash.) would commission a study to determine whether states could conduct special elections for Congress if members were involved in a mass casualty event.