House Republicans propose voting changes as Trump administration eyes the midterms

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are proposing sweeping changes to the nation's voting laws, a long-shot priority for President Donald Trump that would impose stricter requirements, including some before Americans vote in the midterm elections in the fall.

The package released Thursday reflects a number of the party's most sought-after election changes, including requirements for photo IDs before people can vote and proof of citizenship, both to be put in place in 2027. Others, including prohibitions on universal vote-by-mail and ranked choice voting — two voting methods that have proved popular in some states — would happen immediately. The Republican president continues to insist that the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was rigged.

“Americans should be confident their elections are being run with integrity — including commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls, and citizenship verification,” said Rep. Bryan Steil, chairman of the House Administration Committee, in a statement.

“These reforms will improve voter confidence, bolster election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat,” said Steil, R-Wis.

The legislation faces a long road in the narrowly-split Congress, where Democrats have rejected similar ideas as disenfranchising Americans' ability to vote with onerous registration and ID requirements. The effort comes as the Trump administration is turning its attention toward election issues before the November election, when control of Congress will be at stake.

The administration sent FBI agents Wednesday to raid the election headquarters of Fulton County, Georgia, which includes most of Atlanta, seeking ballots from the 2020 election. That follows Trump’s comments earlier this month when he suggested that charges related to that election were imminent.

The top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, said Trump and the Republican Party are trying to “rig” the system.

"This is their latest attempt to block millions of Americans from exercising their right to vote," Morelle said in a statement. He said he would “fight the bill at every turn.”

Republicans are calling their new legislation the “Make Elections Great Again Act" and say their proposal should provide the minimum standard for elections for federal offices.

The 120-plus-page bill includes requirements that people present a photo ID before they vote and that states verify the citizenship of individuals when they register to vote, starting next year.

More immediately, this fall it would require states to use “auditable” paper ballots in elections, which most already do; prohibit states from mailing ballots to all voters through universal vote-by-mail systems; and ban ranked choice voting, which is used in Maine and Alaska.

States risk losing federal election funds at various junctures for noncompliance. For example, states would be required to have agreements with the attorney general’s office to share information about potential voter fraud or risk losing federal election funds in 2026.

And starting this year, it would require states to more frequently update their voting rolls, every 30 days.

Stephen Richer, a Republican who clashed with Trump over the president's false election conspiracy theories while he served as the recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona, posted on the social media site X that the bill is reminiscent of a Democratic effort to reshape national elections in the opposite direction that floundered during Biden's term.

He wrote that the legislation “flattens federalism, and takes away many rights from the states.”

Similar Republican proposals have drawn alarm from voting rights group, which say such changes could lead to widespread problems for voters.

For example, prior Republican efforts to require proof of citizenship to vote have been criticized by Democrats as disenfranchising married women whose last names do not match birth certificates or other government documents.

The Brennan Center for Justice and other groups estimated in a 2023 report that 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age, or 21.3 million people, do not have proof of their citizenship readily available. Almost half of Americans do not have a U.S. passport.

Trump has long signaled a desire to change how elections are run in the United States. Last year he issued an executive order that included a citizenship requirement, among other election-related changes.

At the time, House Republicans approved legislation, the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act,” that would cement Trump’s order into law. That bill has stalled in the Senate, though lawmakers have recently revived efforts to bring it forward for consideration.

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Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

FILE- Voting booths are set up at a polling place in Newtown, Pa, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

A Virginia judge on Thursday dismissed all charges against a former school administrator accused of ignoring repeated warnings that a 6-year-old had a gun hours before a teacher was shot.

Acting on a defense motion, Circuit Judge Rebecca Robinson issued the ruling on the fourth day of the trial of Ebony Parker, who was charged with eight felony counts of child neglect.

“The court is of the legal opinion that this is not a crime,” Robinson said.

The former assistant principal was charged in the January 2023 shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News that left teacher Abby Zwerner wounded. Prosecutors had said the charges issued in a grand jury indictment were for each of the bullets in the gun brought into Zwerner’s classroom. Each count could have carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison upon conviction.

“We had hoped the community would have had the opportunity to weigh in through the full judicial process,” Hampton commonwealth's attorney Anton A. Bell said in a statement. “Nevertheless, the Court has now concluded the matter as it deemed appropriate under the law. Our office remains committed to pursuing justice with integrity, transparency, and fairness, while continuing to honor the role that citizens play in our criminal justice system.”

Defense attorney Curtis Rogers told the judge in making his motion that Parker’s decision on the day of the shooting “wasn’t an act of neglect.”

“Her actions in no way indicated that she believed there was a firearm in the possession” of the child, Rogers said.

Another defense attorney, Stephen Teague, said outside court that “we believe that the right outcome was reached and we’re thrilled for Dr. Parker. It was a great relief for her and we’re just happy that we were part of her journey.”

Parker was not called to testify during the trial. On Wednesday, a video interview of Parker conducted three days after the shooting by a school district human resources officer was played in the courtroom for the jury.

Parker said she was told about reports that the student had a gun in his backpack, but said she could not leave her office due to ongoing testing. A reading specialist who first reported the concerns then searched the backpack, but no gun was found, Parker said.

Parker then said the student’s mother would arrive to pick him up and go through the rest of his belongings.

Zwerner testified earlier in the trial that during recess on the school playground, the student wore an oversized jacket and kept both of his hands in his pockets the entire time. Zwerner said she sent a text message with that observation to the reading specialist, who had been tipped off earlier by students about the gun and reported it to Parker.

After recess, the student continued to wear the jacket in the classroom, where Zwerner was shot at a reading table. Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand. A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.

Criminal charges against school officials after a school shooting are quite rare, experts say. The shooting sent shock waves through this military shipbuilding community and the country at large, with many wondering how a child so young could gain access to a gun and shoot his teacher.

A jury awarded $10 million to Zwerner in a civil trial last November, where Parker, who no longer works at the school, was the only defendant.

The student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges.

Ebony Parker, right, speaks with her attorney, Curtis M. Rogers, during pretrial motions for her trial on felony child neglect charges at the Newport News Circuit Court in Newport News, Va., Monday, May 18, 2026. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

Ebony Parker looks on during jury selection for her trial on felony child neglect charges at the Newport News Circuit Court in Newport News, Va., Monday, May 18, 2026. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)

Newport News Circuit Court Judge Rebecca M. Robinson speaks during the trial of Ebony Parker on felony child neglect charges at Newport News Circuit Court in Newport News, Va., Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)