Rep. Steil Unveils 'Make Elections Great Again Act' to Boost Voting Integrity

The bill aims to restore voter confidence through baseline election standards and stronger security measures.

Jan. 29, 2026 at 12:39pm

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Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) has introduced the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act, a comprehensive bill to implement minimum baseline standards for administering federal elections. The legislation includes a range of election integrity initiatives such as voter ID requirements, citizenship verification, voter roll maintenance, and bans on practices like ballot harvesting and ranked-choice voting.

Why it matters

The MEGA Act is intended to address concerns about election integrity and restore public trust in the voting process. Supporters argue these reforms will make it easy to vote but hard to cheat, while critics contend the measures could disenfranchise voters. The bill's fate faces an uphill battle in the narrowly divided Congress.

The details

The MEGA Act would require photo ID to cast a ballot, mandate states verify the citizenship of registered voters, implement stricter voter roll maintenance, set an Election Day deadline for mail-in ballots, prohibit federal agencies from funding partisan voter registration drives, mandate the use of auditable paper ballots, ban ballot harvesting, and outlaw ranked-choice voting and universal mail-in voting in federal elections.

  • The MEGA Act was introduced by Rep. Steil on January 29, 2026.

The players

Rep. Bryan Steil

A Republican Congressman from Wisconsin who chairs the House Committee on Administration and introduced the MEGA Act.

Scott Presler

The founder of Early Vote Action, an election integrity advocacy group that has praised the MEGA Act.

J. Christian Adams

The president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation and a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who has endorsed the bill's provisions on voter roll maintenance.

Justin Riemer

The president and CEO of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE), who has applauded the MEGA Act's reforms.

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What they’re saying

“Americans should be confident their elections are being run with integrity — including commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls, and citizenship verification. These reforms will improve voter confidence, bolster election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.”

— Rep. Bryan Steil

“I've spent the last decade registering voters across the country and empowering Americans to vote. Without fair elections, we aren't a free nation. Thank you to Chairman Steil for his leadership on comprehensive election reform. Let's make elections great again!”

— Scott Presler, Founder, Early Vote Action

“For too long, federal laws — especially those governing voter list maintenance — have hampered states that are serious about improving election security and enabled those that are not. Reform is long overdue.”

— Justin Riemer, President & CEO, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE)

What’s next

The MEGA Act faces an uphill battle in the narrowly divided Congress, where Democrats are expected to uniformly oppose the election integrity measures. However, Republicans with a slim House majority will likely face pressure from voters concerned about the integrity of elections.

The takeaway

The MEGA Act represents the latest effort by Republicans to enact sweeping changes to election laws, with the goal of restoring voter confidence but raising concerns about potential voter suppression. The bill's fate will be closely watched as a barometer of the ongoing partisan battle over voting rights and election security.