House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., is planning to reintroducing legislation to reform U.S. election laws, including banning states from counting ballots that arrive after polls close on Election Day.
“We’ll be reintroducing legislation in the weeks ahead, putting forward that gold standard for states about how you should be operating and running your elections, and putting in enforcement mechanisms for states that fail to meet a high standard,” Steil told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show on Monday. “The obvious standard that I think should be the most obvious is that ballots need to be in by the time the polls close.”
Steil said that the sole exception to this rule would be ballots from veterans who are serving active duty overseas.
“Separate of that, everybody should be able to have their ballot in by the time the polls are closed,” he said. “It’s no different than when you were in high school when a paper was due.”
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced via TRUTH Social that he would lead a movement to get rid of mail-in-ballots and voting machines due to the potential they create for fraud and corruption.
In March, Trump signed an executive order titled, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.”
An aspect of the executive order is that absentee or mail-in ballots cannot be counted after Election Day.
“States like California, more or less, are seeming to be encouraging people to come in at the final hour, because they allow those ballots to arrive after the polls close again,” Steil said. “That doesn’t instill confidence in our elections. What it does is it weakens it.”
