Mail Ballot Integrity Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Mail Ballot Integrity Act prohibits a state or political subdivision from sending a ballot for a federal election to anyone who did not request it. A voter must submit an in-person, mailed, or electronic request affirming under penalty of perjury that the voter meets at least one statutory eligibility category.
Eligible categories include active-duty service members and their families; students, instructors, professors, and clergy living outside the county; voters temporarily absent during early voting and election day; certain recent long-distance movers; qualifying institutionalized voters; overseas voters; voters with late-known hospitalization or bed restriction; qualifying disabled voters; incarcerated voters not serving a felony sentence; address-confidentiality participants; and voters age 65 or older.
Disability eligibility requires listed current documentation from a government benefit, mobility program, rehabilitation program, or qualifying health professional. A state may maintain an ongoing mail-ballot list only for voters who continue to meet a statutory category under state-law review.
The Act applies to federal elections from enactment. It preempts broader state universal-mail and no-excuse absentee rules for federal ballots, while leaving in-person voting and mail ballots for enumerated voters available.
Who Benefits and How
Voters concerned about unsolicited ballots and election administrators focused on chain-of-custody gain a request-and-affirmation rule. Active-duty families, eligible absent voters, disabled voters with documentation, overseas voters, address-confidentiality participants, nonfelony incarcerated voters, and people age 65 or older retain mail access. States may preserve qualified-voter lists.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Voters outside the listed categories lose mail-voting access even if state law currently permits no-excuse voting. Younger voters, workers with ordinary scheduling conflicts, caregivers, and voters lacking required disability documents may need to vote in person. State and local officials must redesign requests, verify categories, maintain qualified lists, collect perjury affirmations, and separate federal ballots from different state-election rules. Litigation and voter education costs may rise.
Key Provisions
- Prohibits unsolicited mail ballots in federal elections.
- Requires an affirmative written or electronic ballot request.
- Requires an eligibility statement under penalty of perjury.
- Limits eligibility to enumerated voter categories.
- Requires specified current documentation for disability eligibility.
- Allows continuing lists only for voters who remain qualified.
- Preempts broader state mail-voting rules for federal ballots.
- Applies beginning on enactment.
- Preserves mail access for qualifying military, absent, disabled, and older voters.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Prohibits unsolicited mail ballots in federal elections and restricts requested mail ballots to voters who submit a perjury affirmation and fit enumerated military, education, clergy, absence, relocation, institutional, overseas, medical, disability, incarceration, confidentiality, or age criteria.
Key Policy Areas
Federal Elections, Mail Ballot Eligibility, Absentee Voting, Voter Verification, State Election Administration
Primary Purpose
Prohibits unsolicited mail ballots in federal elections and restricts requested mail ballots to voters who submit a perjury affirmation and fit enumerated military, education, clergy, absence, relocation, institutional, overseas, medical, disability, incarceration, confidentiality, or age criteria.
Policy Domains
Section 2 federal mail-ballot request and eligibility limits
Identified Gains
- Voters concerned about unsolicited ballots
- Election officials verifying individual requests
- Active-duty families retaining mail access
- Overseas voters retaining mail access
- Disabled voters with qualifying documentation
- Address-confidentiality participants
- Voters age 65 or older
Identified Costs
- No-excuse mail voters outside listed categories
- Younger voters with scheduling conflicts
- Caregivers lacking a statutory excuse
- Disabled voters lacking current documentation
- State election offices redesigning ballot requests
- Local officials verifying eligibility categories
- States operating universal-mail elections
- Election courts resolving federal-state conflicts
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on House Administration.
Introduced in House
Mr. Higgins of Louisiana (for himself, Mr. Stutzman, Mr. Gosar, …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
No-excuse mail voters outside listed categories, Overseas voters retaining mail access, Voters concerned about unsolicited ballots
Positive-direction: Overseas voters retaining mail access, Voters concerned about unsolicited ballots
Negative-direction: No-excuse mail voters outside listed categories, Younger voters with scheduling conflicts
Election officials verifying individual requests, Local officials verifying eligibility categories, State election offices redesigning ballot requests
Positive-direction: Election officials verifying individual requests
Negative-direction: Local officials verifying eligibility categories, State election offices redesigning ballot requests, States operating universal-mail elections
Address-confidentiality participants, Disabled voters lacking current documentation, Disabled voters with qualifying documentation
Positive-direction: Address-confidentiality participants, Disabled voters with qualifying documentation
Negative-direction: Disabled voters lacking current documentation
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "requester"
- → Voter requesting a federal mail ballot
- "administrator"
- → State or local election official
- "excluded_voter"
- → Voter outside the enumerated categories
- "retained_voter"
- → Voter meeting an enumerated eligibility category
- "document_provider"
- → Health professional documenting disability
Note: {'scope_ids': ['federal_mail_ballot_restrictions'], 'description': 'The restrictions govern federal elections and mail ballots, not in-person voting; listed categories retain access, but ordinary no-excuse eligibility and unsolicited universal-mail systems are displaced for covered elections.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A registered voter fitting at least one listed military, absence, disability, institutional, confidentiality, medical, overseas, or age category.
A state-maintained list limited to prior requesters who continue to satisfy a listed category under state law.
An in-person, mailed, or electronic request containing a perjury affirmation of statutory eligibility.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology