Trump has pushed for voting changes. The Republican majority in Congress will try to make this happen

They say the measures are necessary to restore public confidence in elections, a loss of confidence that Democrats say was fueled by false claims from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In the new year, Republicans will be under pressure to deal with Trump’s desire to change the way elections are run in the US, something he continues to support despite his victory in November.

The main legislation Republicans want to push through will be versions of the American Confidence in Elections Act and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, said Republican Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Administration Committee, which deals with election-related legislation concerned. The proposals are known as the ACE or SAVE Act.

“As we look to the new year with a unified Republican administration, we have a real opportunity to move this legislation into law not just out of committee but across the House,” Steil said in an interview. “We must increase Americans’ confidence in elections.”

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

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

“Our view and the Republicans’ view are very different on this issue,” Morelle said. “They’ve spent most of the last two years and beyond really trying to restrict people’s rights to vote in elections – at the state level and at the federal level. And that’s what both the SAVE Act and the ACE Act do – they make it harder for people to vote.”

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

Democrats say some states’ laws are too restrictive in choosing acceptable IDs, making it more difficult for college students or people without permanent residence.

Morelle said he was disappointed by Republicans’ claims in this year’s campaigns about widespread voting by non-citizens, which is extremely rare, and noted that those claims all but evaporated after Trump’s victory. Voting by non-citizens is already illegal and can lead to criminal charges and deportation.

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

Ahead of the November election, House Republicans pushed for the SAVE Act, which passed the House in July but failed in the Democratic-controlled Senate. It requires proof of citizenship upon voter registration and imposes possible penalties for election officials who do not confirm eligibility to vote.

Republicans say the current process relies on a so-called honor system with loopholes that would have allowed non-citizens to register and vote in past elections. While it does happen that non-citizens vote, research and reviews of state cases have shown that this is rare and is usually a mistake rather than a deliberate attempt to influence an election.

Under the current system, those seeking to register are asked to provide either a state driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. Some states require a full Social Security number.

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

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

In Georgia, a constantly competitive presidential state, election officials said there were no problems verifying the citizenship status of its nearly 7.3 million registered voters. They conducted an audit in 2022 that identified 1,634 people who had attempted to register but could not be verified as U.S. citizens by a federal database.

A second audit this year used local court records to identify people who said they could not serve as jurors because they were not U.S. citizens. Six of the 20 people identified were under investigation for illegal voting, but one of those cases was dropped because the person had since died.

“With these audits, we have reassured voters that no non-citizens are voting here in Georgia,” said Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State. “And when society is highly polarized, you have to be careful about building trust. Trust is the gold standard.”

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

“You have to do it right because it’s about people’s priceless right to vote,” Raffensperger said.

If Congress passes 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 election day, which Trump said he would like to see happen because it would eliminate early voting and limit access to mail-in ballots. Both methods are very popular with voters. In Georgia, 71% of voters cast their ballots in person before Election Day in November.

Both said they hoped lawmakers would pay attention to what works in their states and build on those successes.

“We have proven time and time again in our states that our elections are secure and accurate,” Benson said.