In the latest push by House Republicans to overhaul U.S. voting rules ahead of the fall midterm elections, the party released a sweeping package of election changes that would impose stricter requirements on states administering federal contests. The proposals, unveiled Thursday, include photo ID and proof of citizenship requirements aimed at being put in place in 2027, alongside other measures that would take effect sooner.
Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., who chairs the House Administration Committee, said the legislation reflects “commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls, and citizenship verification,” while arguing that the changes would improve election administration. In his remarks, Steil framed the effort as both pro-access and anti-fraud, saying, “These reforms will improve voter confidence, bolster election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.”
The bill, Republicans are calling the “Make Elections Great Again Act,” would set new federal standards for how elections are run for offices in Congress. According to the proposal’s description, it includes a requirement that people present a photo ID before voting and that states verify the citizenship of individuals when they register to vote, with those citizenship-related changes scheduled for 2027.
Some provisions would apply immediately for the 2026 election cycle. The package would require states to use “auditable” paper ballots in federal elections, prohibit states from mailing ballots to all voters through universal vote-by-mail systems, and bar ranked choice voting, which is used in Maine and Alaska. The bill would also require states to update their voting rolls every 30 days starting this year, according to the description provided with the legislation.
The proposal adds enforcement and conditional funding elements as well. It would require states to have agreements with the attorney general’s office to share information about potential voter fraud in 2026 or risk losing federal election funds at different points, according to the bill’s outline. The approach would tie compliance to the flow of federal election funding, putting additional pressure on state election systems to adopt the federal standards.
House Democrats criticized the measure as an attempt to suppress voting. Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said Trump and the Republican Party are trying to “rig” the system, calling the bill “their latest attempt to block millions of Americans from exercising their right to vote,” and saying he would “fight the bill at every turn.” Democrats have rejected prior Republican voting changes, including ID and citizenship proof requirements, arguing that the requirements could disenfranchise eligible voters.
The legislation’s push comes as the Trump administration has directed attention toward election issues before the November election. The administration sent FBI agents Wednesday to raid the election headquarters of Fulton County, Georgia, which includes most of Atlanta, seeking ballots from the 2020 election, the article reported, following Trump comments earlier in the month that charges related to that election were imminent. The bill’s release also comes in a broader political context in which Trump has continued to insist that the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden was rigged.
Republicans have cited concerns about eligibility verification and election integrity, and voting rights groups and Democrats have raised concerns about the practical impact of the citizenship proof requirement. The bill’s description points to earlier criticism of similar proof-of-citizenship efforts, including concerns about disenfranchising married women whose last names may not match birth certificates or other government documents. The article also cites a 2023 Brennan Center for Justice report estimating that 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age—or 21.3 million people—do not have proof of citizenship readily available, and that almost half of Americans do not have a U.S. passport.
The bill also drew reaction from former election officials who have previously clashed with Trump. Stephen Richer, a Republican who served as the recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona, posted on X that the legislation “flattens federalism, and takes away many rights from the states,” adding that it resembles a failed Democratic effort to reshape elections in the opposite direction during the Biden administration.