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Chairman Steil's full opening statement as prepared for delivery:
Today, the Committee on House Administration continues our oversight of federal elections.
We’ll focus on state's efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls, as well as their efforts to ensure only eligible voters are participating in our democratic process.
In January, I sent letters to 10 Secretaries of State addressing these issues.
My questions focused on key topics including:
Voter list maintenance;
Verifying eligibility, including citizenship, when registering voters;
How states identify and notify ineligible registrants of removal;
And use of the SAVE database – which the Trump Administration has made available free of charge.
Two of the Secretaries I wrote are here with us today, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.
I thank each of you for your responses and for being with us today.
This Committee has the responsibility of ensuring states follow federal election law.
It’s also responsible for drafting necessary legislative reforms.
With several recent reports of potential noncitizens appearing on state voter rolls, it’s time to act.
In Ohio, 62 noncitizens were found on the state’s voter rolls with the help of the SAVE database.
In Iowa, an illegal alien was working as the superintendent for the state’s largest school system.
He was registered to vote in the state of Maryland – and was mailed a ballot.
In Kansas, the SAVE database helped identify a noncitizen who has been charged with illegally voting in three elections.
Also turns out, he was a mayor of a city in Kansas!
Just three days ago, a noncitizen was charged in Minnesota for voting in the 2024 election.
These are real stories, and current federal law is part of the problem.
The National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act set baseline standards for voter registration in 1993 and 2002, respectively.
However, we’ve identified serious flaws in these statutes that weaken election integrity.
For example, under the NVRA, each state must include a voter registration application with every driver’s license application.
This, in particular, creates a serious problem when states allow illegal aliens to get a driver’s license.
So to get this clear - under current law, illegal aliens are required to receive voter registration materials when they get a driver's license.
That's absolutely nuts.
Congress caused this problem, and we need to fix it.
Issues like this are only compounded when states fail to maintain accurate voter rolls.
Consider the implications in states with universal vote by mail.
In those states, a live ballot is automatically mailed to every person on the voter rolls for every election.
When list maintenance is insufficient, ballots can be sent to people who have moved – or to people who are deceased.
What’s to stop the current resident at that address from filling out that ballot and sending it back?
These are real flaws and fixing them is something everyone should get behind.
It’s commonsense reforms.
This is exactly why I introduced the Make Elections Great Again Act, the MEGA Act.
The MEGA Act updates, clarifies, and strengthens voter list maintenance standards – including a new requirement that states conduct general maintenance at least every thirty days.
This baseline requirement would ensure that every state takes the proper steps to keep their voter list accurate and up to date.
Election integrity isn’t a complicated issue.
Only eligible voters should cast ballots in our elections.
One illegal vote is too many.
Congress has the ability to strengthen standards for federal elections.
It’s time that we act.
Doing so will boost voter confidence and increase participation in our elections - and that's a good thing.
I thank the Secretaries for being here today and I look forward to our conversation.
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