HR7300-119

What This Bill Does

The Make Elections Great Again Act is a broad federal election-administration bill. It requires valid physical photo ID for in-person federal voting beginning in 2027, allows provisional ballots but requires ID or a religious-objection affidavit within three days, and requires mail voters to include photo ID copies or Social Security-number affidavits unless covered by military or accessibility exceptions. It requires public access to digital imaging devices in government buildings for copying ID. It repeals and replaces major voter-registration administration provisions, gives the Election Assistance Commission rulemaking, form, guidance, reporting, and State-information duties, requires States to authenticate registration forms, maintain computerized statewide voter lists, remove ineligible voters at least every 30 days, handle mail registration forms, and support civil enforcement and private suits. It requires information-sharing agreements with the Attorney General, jury noncitizenship notices to State election officials, reports on foreign and domestic election threats, broader preservation of election records, and restrictions on federal agencies registering voters or using funds for certain voter-registration activity. It also permits HAVA funds for post-election audits, requires voter-verifiable paper ballots suitable for manual audits, limits possession and paid handling of mail ballots, ends universal vote by mail by requiring voter requests, mandates USPS barcode tracking and official election-mail envelope standards, and requires absentee or mail ballots to arrive by poll closing, with processing upon receipt and no counting before polls close.

Who Benefits and How

Election-integrity advocates benefit because the bill creates uniform federal photo-ID, paper-ballot, list-maintenance, mail-ballot, record-preservation, audit, and enforcement rules. State election officials benefit from EAC forms, guidance, federal agency information sharing, DOJ agreements, and citizenship or jury-service information streams, though those supports come with heavy duties. Voters who already have qualifying ID or prefer paper ballots benefit from physical ID rules, voter-verifiable paper ballots, mail tracking, and election record preservation. The Postal Service benefits from a formal election-mail tracking role and barcode standards for ballot envelopes.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Voters without qualifying photo ID, voters who rely on mail voting, and voters needing help returning ballots face new documentation, copying, affidavit, request, deadline, and ballot-possession barriers. State and local election officials must update registration systems, notify applicants, provide imaging-device access, authenticate forms, maintain lists, preserve records, verify ID, process mail ballots on new timelines, enforce mail-ballot possession limits, and comply with paper-ballot and tracking requirements. The EAC, DOJ, DHS, federal courts, USPS, and other federal agencies receive new guidance, reporting, enforcement, information-sharing, naturalization-notice, threat-reporting, and envelope-standard duties. States risk HAVA payment consequences for noncompliance with mail-ballot receipt and processing rules.

Key Provisions

• Requires physical photo ID for in-person federal voting and ID copies or affidavits for non-in-person voting beginning with 2027 federal elections.
• Modifies voter-registration administration with EAC guidance, mail form rules, list maintenance, civil enforcement, private rights of action, and federal information-sharing agreements.
• Requires paper ballots, post-election audit funding, broader election-record preservation, and limits on federal agency voter-registration activity.
• Restricts mail-ballot possession and paid handling, ends universal vote by mail, requires USPS barcode tracking, and sets receipt, processing, and counting deadlines for absentee and mail ballots.