Republicans, Braced for Losses, Push More Voting Restrictions in Congress

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/us/politics/republicans-vote-fraud-id-midterms.html

https://archive.ph/JCxvc

Republicans, Braced for Losses, Push More Voting Restrictions in Congress
Legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote was only the beginning as the G.O.P. presses to sharply limit voting in line with President Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud.
By Annie Karni
Feb. 17, 2026

The strict voter identification measure that Republicans have pushed through the House is just their opening salvo in a broader legislative effort aimed at keeping control of Congress this fall and helping to amplify the president’s false claims of mass voter fraud in the event that they lose.

The G.O.P.’s relentless focus on the bill and an even more restrictive measure making its way through the House — both of which face a steep uphill path to becoming law — is aimed chiefly at intensifying pressure within their own ranks to muscle through new voting restrictions and seek to reshape the electorate in their favor.

But it also allows Republicans to hammer President Trump’s falsehoods about widespread illegal voting particularly by undocumented immigrants, helping them build a case, however groundless, that any Democratic victories in November will be a result of cheating.

Next up is a measure from Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Committee on House Administration, whose “Make Elections Great Again Act” would go even further in imposing federal control over elections than the Save America Act, which squeaked through on a near-party-line vote last week. That bill would require proof of American citizenship to register to vote and allow the Department of Homeland Security to have access to voter rolls.

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Republicans want Noem to decide who can vote