MEGA: Make Elections Great Again

The United States House of Representatives is advancing the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act, a comprehensive legislative package designed to establish baseline requirements for state election administration across the country. The bill, designated as H.R.7300 in the 119th Congress, aims to standardize election integrity measures and modify how federal elections are conducted.

The legislation was unveiled on January 29, 2026, by Bryan Steil, the Chairman of the Committee on House Administration. According to Steil, the reforms are intended to bolster voter confidence and ensure elections are run with integrity by making it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.

Core Requirements of the MEGA Act

The MEGA Act proposes several mandates for state-level election officials to ensure uniformity in how voters are identified and how ballots are processed. The primary requirements include:

• The requirement of photo identification for individuals to vote.
• The requirement for states to verify the citizenship of individuals during the voter registration process.
• The implementation of more stringent routine voter list maintenance requirements.
• A mandate for states to utilize auditable paper ballots.

In addition to these requirements, the bill seeks to prohibit specific voting practices and methods that have been adopted in various jurisdictions. The legislation would ban ballot harvesting, ranked choice voting, and universal vote-by-mail systems.

The act also addresses the timeline for mail-in voting, requiring that all mail-in ballots be received by the close of polls on election day to be counted.

Legislative Process and Oversight

H.R.7300 is being processed through multiple committees in the House of Representatives. These include the Committee on House Administration, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Judiciary Committee, the Committee on Homeland Security, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

The bill’s introduction was scheduled for a House pro-forma session following its unveiling in late January 2026.

Support and Criticism

The legislation has received support from election integrity advocates. Cleta Mitchell, the founder of the Election Integrity Network, described the MEGA Act as a fantastic comprehensive bill that restores integrity to our elections.

Scott Presler, the founder of Early Vote Action, also expressed support for the leadership of Chairman Steil on the reforms, stating that without fair elections, the United States is not a free nation.

However, the legislation has met with concerns from local government representatives. The National Association of Counties (NACo) has raised concerns regarding the impact the MEGA Act may have on county-level administration.

Americans should be confident their elections are being run with integrity – including commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls, and citizenship verification

Bryan Steil, Chairman of the Committee on House Administration