House GOP introduces election reform bill

House Republicans Monday introduced election reform legislation that encourages states to implement certain changes while revising local election processes in Washington, D.C., and adjusting federal campaign finance rules.

Republicans first introduced a version of the legislation last year, fueled by GOP skepticism of election processes and results in 2020, and crafted as a response to House Democrats’ sweeping election reform legislation that would have dramatically increased federal involvement in election administration.

Led by House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), the American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act introduced Monday imposes a number of requirements on states that get elections-related federal grants, among other changes.

It requires states to preserve election materials like ballots and ballot envelope images for 22 months, and expressly allows the states to use those federal funds on audits and to implement certain restrictions on “ballot harvesting,” or designating a person to collect and return a mail ballot for a voter, according to a GOP summary of the bill. The Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration would also be required to provide data to states for the purposes of checking if registered voters are citizens or if they had died.

In changes to campaign finance rules, the bill loosens rules on political party committees coordinating expenditures with candidates and raises contribution limits for political party committees. 

Another provision would prohibit 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations from directly funding election boards. The provision is a response to GOP uproar about “Zuckerbucks,” a reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pouring millions into a nonprofit that sent money to election boards in 2020, which Republicans allege benefited “overwhelmingly Democratic precincts” and funded activities that Republicans oppose like ballot drop boxes.

The bill also repeals an executive order from President Biden that directed heads of federal agencies to evaluate ways to promote voter registration and voter participation.

“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.”

Steil and other Republicans from the House Administration Committee unveiled the bill Monday in Georgia, praising the GOP-supported election reforms in the state that prompted Major League Baseball to pull out of the state for the 2021 MLB All-Star Game. The 2023 All-Star Game is Tuesday in Seattle, Washington.

“We’re doing this in Atlanta, Georgia the day before the All-Star Game as a reminder that two years ago, there were false attacks about Georgia’s voter integrity legislation — attacks that were proven false in the last election as we saw voter participation increase after voter integrity legislation was passed,” Steil said.

“We saw people push back with false narratives right here in the state of Georgia two years ago,” Steil said. “And the president’s false narratives and the left’s false narratives seeped into woke corporate board rooms that made decisions off of the lies that were being strewn about Georgia’s voter integrity bill.”

The bill also makes numerous changes to voter laws in Washington, D.C., that include requiring photo I.D. to vote, and repealing a law that would allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. Steil said that Republicans aim to use Washington, D.C. as a model upon which states can craft their own election laws.

Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), ranking member on the House Administration Committee, slammed the bill as “anti-American.” 

“This legislation is designed to appease extremist election deniers who have spent the last four years attacking our democracy,” Morelle said. “It would restrict the fundamental right to vote especially for voters of color, jeopardize the security of our elections, burden local election administrators, and bring more dark money into our electoral process — opening the door to corruption. It’s anti-American.”

Morelle said Democrats are committed to their own election reform bills, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.