House GOP to examine D.C. election laws in latest hearing

House Republicans will examine D.C. election laws Wednesday in their latest hearing digging into the city's affairs, an opportunity for them to advocate for stricter voting laws in the deep-blue city.

The joint 10 a.m. hearing of the House Oversight and Administration committees will consider the American Confidence in Elections Act, a bill that includes a section that would rewrite D.C. election laws despite local officials arguing there have been no issues with the current laws.

That dynamic is indicative of the strain between officials in a liberal city and congressional Republicans who want to use D.C. as a model city for their own policy preferences. Republicans cite Congress's constitutional authority to oversee laws and spending in the federal district, but local officials often push back, saying members of Congress do not know what is best for D.C. residents.

In this case, the committees will be examining a set of provisions that would undo existing D.C. election laws or create additional restrictions.

The American Confidence in Elections Act would require people voting in person to present identification, which D.C. law does not require. It would prohibit D.C. from sending unsolicited mail-in ballots to registered voters and also prohibit same-day registration, which D.C. allows. The bill would add restrictions on the use of drop boxes and, among other things, would ban noncitizen voting.

House Republicans already tried unsuccessfully to block a recently passed D.C. law to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, passing a bipartisan disapproval resolution in February. The resolution died in a Senate committee.

The hearing, titled "American Confidence in Elections: The Path to Election Integrity in the District of Columbia," features witnesses including Monica Holman Evans, the executive director of the D.C. Board of Elections; Ken Cuccinelli, a former Trump administration official and former attorney general of Virginia who runs the conservative Election Transparency Initiative; Republican lawyer Charles Spies; and Wendy R. Weiser, vice president for democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

Evans is expected to explain to members of the committees some policies the board has in place to ensure election integrity, according to her prepared remarks. Those include combing the rolls for deceased voters; conducting signature verification for all mail-in ballots; testing voting equipment in public view; conducting manual post-election audits, also in public view; and having poll watchers and election observers present during voting.

While the American Confidence in Elections Act is a national bill - introduced last Congress by then-Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) - the District of Columbia is the only jurisdiction that would be required to implement the voting law changes outlined in the legislation. The intent, Davis previously explained, would be for D.C. to "model" the legislation for other jurisdictions, giving them a framework while also providing them enhanced tools to strengthen voting procedures.

If House Republicans intended to take up the elections bill, it would still face low odds of success in the Democratic-controlled Senate.