Republicans from local to federal levels focus on election integrity as new terms, sessions begin

As new terms and legislative sessions begin, Republican politicians from the local level to the White House are focusing on passing and implementing various election integrity efforts, from banning ranked-choice voting to ending “Bidenbucks.”

With a trifecta Republican government at the federal level, Republicans are prioritizing issues such as ensuring that only U.S. citizens vote in federal elections and that the private funding of U.S. elections is prohibited. Meanwhile, Republican-led state and local governments are focusing on banning the ranked-choice voting system and cleaning up voter rolls.

White House

On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump rescinded multiple executive orders from the Biden administration, including Executive Order 14019, often referred to by critics as “Bidenbucks.”

In March 2021, then-President Joe Biden signed the executive order for “Bidenbucks,” which alludes to "Zuckerbucks," the approximately $400 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg widely alleged to have been funneled through left-leaning nonprofits to turn out the Democratic vote in the 2020 presidential election.

According to the Biden executive order, “The head of each agency shall evaluate ways in which the agency can, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, promote voter registration and voter participation,” including "soliciting and facilitating approved, nonpartisan third-party organizations and State officials to provide voter registration services on agency premises.”

The federal agencies, however, were not particularly transparent about how exactly they were implementing the executive order, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) in October. “With no agency publicly releasing its strategy to increase voter participation, EO 14019 lacks transparency and obfuscates how these agencies are conducting themselves,” according to the GAI report.

In June, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil subpoenaed 15 Biden cabinet officials for their agencies’ strategic plans to implement the executive order.

The Biden administration also worked with left-wing organizations to implement “Bidenbucks.” The Department of Justice had a “listening session” in July 2021 with multiple non-governmental organizations regarding the implementation of “Bidenbucks,” and none of them were conservative.

In August, nine Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over "Bidenbucks," arguing that it "violates the Constitution." Earlier that month, two Republican secretaries of state had filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the executive order. That suit was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on January 27.

Congress

Steil has also laid out congressional Republicans’ plan to pass election integrity legislation.

In an episode of the “John Solomon Reports” podcast last week, the Wisconsin congressman said that with Republicans leading both chambers of Congress and the White House, legislation such as the SAVE Act and the ACE Act can be enacted.

“So, front and center are two major pieces of legislation: the SAVE Act, which says U.S. elections are for U.S. citizens only; and then what has been called the ACE Act, American Confidence in Elections Act, which is a broad, comprehensive, conservative election integrity bill that is far-reaching,” Steil said.

“Inside of the ACE Act, are really important provisions, things like preventing foreign money from coming into U.S. elections,” he added.

The ACE Act is made up of almost 50 bills, including aiding states in ensuring election integrity in their elections, promoting voter ID, and preventing private funding of election administration.

States

Several states, with their legislative sessions just starting, are also focused on passing various election integrity laws.

Banning ranked-choice voting (RCV) is one of the issues that some states are prioritizing. RCV is an election process whereby if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, then a runoff system is triggered. When voters cast their ballots, they rank each candidate in order of first-to-last.

If one candidate doesn't reach the 50% plus-one vote threshold, then the candidate with the least amount of first-choice votes is eliminated, then second-choice votes from those who voted for the last-place finisher are reallocated among the remaining candidates and tallied – in a process that continues until a candidate receives the majority of the vote.

Alaska and Maine use RCV for both federal and statewide elections, while Hawaii uses it for some statewide elections.

However, several states have introduced legislation to ban RCV. Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project Action, released a statement earlier this month about the legislation, saying, “Just days into state legislative sessions, ranked-choice voting (RCV) bans have been introduced in Iowa, Wyoming, Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas, building on the nationwide momentum end RCV.

“Eleven states have already banned RCV, and six states voted down RCV ballot measures in 2024. RCV is a confusing voting system that voters clearly do not like or want to use, as demonstrated by its wide rejection in 2024. Every state should ban ranked-choice voting and ensure this convoluted scheme is not used anywhere within its borders.”

Legislation has been introduced in Maine to repeal RCV, while state legislatures in North Dakota and Ohio are also considering banning the election system.

Utah has a pilot program for RCV in several localities, and a state Senate committee blocked legislation that would have extended it for another decade.

Also, a few states are focusing on preventing foreign donations to ballot measure campaigns, following Ohio’s lead.

Foreign funding

In June, Ohio enacted a law banning foreign nationals from donating to state ballot issue campaigns, including before the measures secure their place on the ballot. The law was amended in the state House before passage to include a ban on contributions from green card residents.

The law followed reports about Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, who lives in Wyoming and donates to nonprofits that donate funds to influence U.S. politics and ballot measure campaigns.

Three states thus far are working to ban such funding. “Congratulations to lawmakers in Kansas, Missouri, and Montana for quickly introducing legislation to ban corrosive foreign funding of ballot measure campaigns,” Snead said in a statement earlier this month.

“For years, the liberal dark money group Sixteen Thirty Fund has taken advantage of a loophole that allows foreign-tied money to be poured into ballot issue campaigns, courtesy of progressive Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss. It is critical to protect American elections from foreign influence by closing this loophole, and it is encouraging to see states make this a priority in the new legislative term.”

Voter rolls

Both Oklahoma and Maricopa County, Ariz., have focused on cleaning up their respective voter rolls this month. Last week, the Oklahoma State Election Board completed required voter roll maintenance, which included removing 129,680 inactive voter registrations and 2,242 duplicate voter registrations.

Meanwhile, in Maricopa County, newly-elected Recorder Justin Heap announced last week that 242,565 inactive voters were removed from the county’s voter rolls.