WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – With just 55 days until Election Day, Congress is laser focused on making sure Americans feel confident in casting their ballots.
However, Democrats and Republicans have different ways of ensuring election integrity.
“We need to strengthen Americans’ confidence in our elections,” said U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, (R-Wis.) as he opened his committee’s hearing Wednesday.
The House committee invited six secretaries of state to testify, and some lawmakers defended them from attacks on their own integrity.
“When you call people liars who are testifying before Congress, that’s a federal offense,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Morelle, (D-N.Y.). “If you have evidence of it, you ought to bring it.”
The hearing came amid Republican concerns that undocumented immigrants will flood the polls and overwhelmingly vote Democrat in the November election.
“If one person that is not an American citizen has the ability to vote in our election, there is a serious problem,” said U.S. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, (R-N.Y.).
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, (D-Ariz.), said his office works to remove noncitizens from voter rolls, and there is no proof that they are voting in large numbers.
“The paranoia around a fake problem,” Fontes said.
However, Steil supports federal legislation to prevent noncitizen voting and require voter ID.
“More confidence leads to greater participation, which is a good thing for our country,” Steil said.
Democrats are pushing their own voting rights package they argue defends against GOP attacks on voter access.
“We’re going forward by making sure that our democracy works for everyone,” said U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, (D-Ala.), during a press conference Tuesday with other members of Congress and civil rights leaders.
Sewell said the legislation would squash strict voter ID requirements and bans on early voting and vote by mail.
The secretaries of state at Wednesday’s hearing hailed from Arizona, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio and West Virginia.
State and local election officials from across the country sent a letter Wednesday to the U.S. Postal Service, warning that widespread problems with its mail delivery system threaten to disrupt voting.