Election Integrity Working Group | Fairfax GOP

Republicans will have many opportunities to influence election-related legislation in 2024, given the razor-thin majorities the Democrats won in the House (51-49) and Senate (21-19) on November 7. Citizens can present written, zoom or in-person comments for hearings on specific bills; contact legislators with emails, phone calls and letters; use social media to educate the public; and publish letters to the editor and op-eds. To help organize those efforts, the Fairfax GOP Election Integrity Working Group will present a webinar about the 2024 legislative session on December 18 at 7:30 p.m. Please send an email to legislation@fairfaxgop.org to receive the sign-up link, with an option to be included on the 2024 election legislation email list for updates and calls to action.

Election Bills in the Virginia General Assembly

December and January are key months for introducing legislation. Legislators pre-file draft legislation between November 20 and January 10, 2024, but members are limited in the number of bills they can sponsor. Several election-related bills that failed to pass in 2023 will undoubtedly be re-introduced by both Democrats and Republicans in the 2024 session. Election-related bills are voted on by the Privileges and Elections (P&E) Committees in the House and Senate to decide which bills will be sent to the floor.

In 2023, two laws were passed that improved election integrity: a law requiring the final four digits in the voter’s Social Security number and the year of birth on the absentee ballot security envelope, instead of a witness signature, and a law permitting localities to do so-called “risk limiting audits” using entire batches (like an entire district or several entire precincts) with hand counts after an election to audit the results.

In 2024, Republicans are likely to reintroduce bills to require a current photo ID, to eliminate the “voter affirmation” statement, to reduce early voting to 10 days, to eliminate ranked voting, to repeal “same day registration,” and to require readily visible differences between driver’s licenses for citizens and non citizens, as well as bills on many other concerns which will be discussed in the December 18 webinar. So far, the only election-related draft bill that has been introduced by either party in both the House and Senate is a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights of felons as soon as they are released from prison. To track new 2024 legislation as it is introduced, search by topic or by the committee or status.

Election Bills in Congress

In July, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives Administration Committee passed the American Confidence in Elections Act (ACE) package of election integrity bills out of committee, but it has not yet received a floor vote. In a renewed effort last week, the House Administration Committee voted to send eight narrowly focused bills improving election integrity to a floor vote:

• The Safeguarding Electoral Integrity Act repeals President Biden’s Executive Order 14019 which required all federal agencies to partner with private voter advocacy groups to “Get Out The Vote.”
• The Federal Election Audit Act allows federal election assistance dollars to “fund postelection audits for federal offices in a state.”
• The Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act prohibits “contributions by foreign nationals in elections or in connection with ballot initiatives or referendums.” 
• The Protecting American Voters Act requires DHS and the Social Security Administration “to provide information to states to verify the citizenship status of individuals registered to vote.”
• The Citizen Ballot Protection Act allows a state “to include as part of the federal voter-registration form a requirement that applicants provide proof of citizenship.”
• The No-Vote for Non-Citizens Act amends the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, better known as “the motor voter law,” and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 “to ensure that only eligible American citizens may participate in federal elections.” It also “requires localities that allow noncitizens to vote in local elections to print separate voter lists and separate ballots from any federal elections.”
• The Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access Act codifies the program sending congressional observers to watch federal election procedures.
• The American Confidence in Elections: District of Columbia Citizen Voter Act requires U.S. citizenship to vote in any Washington, D.C. election. In 2022, the D.C. City Council had passed a law giving non-citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote in city and local elections as long as they had resided in D.C. for 30 days.

Virginia Republicans will need to stay in contact with legislators in the Virginia General Assembly throughout the 2024 legislative session. To learn more, email legislation@fairfaxgop.org to receive the sign-up link for the December 18 webinar.

The Election Integrity Working Group is a volunteer-run project of the Fairfax GOP.