WASHINGTON - The Committee on House Administration's Subcommittee on Elections held a hearing today titled, "Revisiting the 2024 Election with Secretaries of State."

Witnesses: 
  • Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen
  • Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry
  • Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane
  • Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose
  • Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas
In case you missed it, here are the top takeaways:
1. How do safeguards in mail-in ballot returns reduce fraud in third-party ballot collections?

Chairwoman Laurel Lee (FL-15): Secretary Landry, Louisiana recently enacted safeguards for mail-in ballot returns via third-party collection. Can you share with us how these safeguards reduce fraud in third-party ballot collections?

Secretary Landry: Certainly, we passed some legislation last year that closed loopholes regarding ballot harvesting. In addition to prohibiting individuals from picking up multiple ballots, we also now prohibit delivery by any method where one individual is delivering multiple ballots. So if you're not a family member, you can only deliver one ballot, whether it's to the registrar voter's office or to a post office box.

Chairwoman Laurel Lee (FL-15): Have these additional safeguards reduced voting via absentee ballot?

Secretary Landry: They have not.

Chairwoman Laurel Lee (FL-15): And in your opinion, did these measures unduly burden absentee voters in Louisiana?

Secretary Landry: They do not. In fact, we had a lawsuit regarding one of our new laws, and the plaintiffs after the most recent election, moved to dismiss the lawsuit. In the motion they mentioned that they were unable to find a single plaintiff who was impacted by the legislation, in spite of their thinking that they would, they didn't, they couldn't find anyone. So we think they're just common sense measures, and they protect our most vulnerable voters. 

Click the image or here to view Chairwoman Lee's Q&A. 
2. How has Idaho kept U.S. elections for U.S. citizens only?

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11): I understand that the Idaho state law requires voters to be documented U.S. citizens. Has this requirement unduly denied the vote to any lawful citizens?

Secretary McGrane: Not that I'm aware of.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11): I also understand the Idaho recently removed a number of non-citizens from the voter rolls. How is your office able to accurately identify and remove non-citizen voters in a timely manner?

Secretary McGrane: I appreciate the question. As I mentioned, last summer we signed the Only Citizens Can Vote Act. Working through a process using our Idaho Transportation Department, Idaho State Police, and then, most notably, Department of Homeland Security, we ran the entire 1.1 million registered voters in Idaho through those systems to verify citizenship, easily determining citizenship for the overwhelming majority, but then really dialing it into a case by case basis to narrow it down to 34 individuals who were non-citizens on Idaho's voter rolls. But I think using that precision and scrutiny really helped, but as I identified in my remarks, there are still tools that are needed to help really bolster this for all of us.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11): Had you done that in the past or was this the first time that you really started drilling down looking for non-citizens?

Secretary McGrane: This was the first time that we'd actually had that, and I think this will be continued work as you see from the President's Executive Order and other efforts.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11): Some of our colleagues continue to maintain that non-citizen voting is a non-issue. Is that true, or do you have a different opinion on that?

Secretary McGrane: I think every American wants to make sure that their vote can count, and that their vote counts the same as everybody else, and that there is no one who's ineligible participating in our elections, because as we know, anytime that happens, especially that razor thin election, like I mentioned earlier, it can cancel out somebody else's vote. So I do think this is an issue for determining accuracy.

Click the image or here to view Rep. Loudermilk's Q&A. 
3. Have Voter ID laws impacted turnout?

Dr. Greg Murphy (NC-03): Secretary Landry, in your testimony, you shared that your governor issued a directive requiring the Office of Motor Vehicles to share information on non-citizens who hold Louisiana driver's license or ID. How can illegal immigrants take advantage of automatic voter registration, particularly when they come in contact with the state DMV?

Secretary Landry: In Louisiana, illegal immigrants are not allowed to get a driver's license - only those here legally can get a driver's license, and we previously did not have access to that information. Governor Landry ordered the DMV to provide that information to us and it allows us to now audit our voter rolls to see if there are non-citizens on the voter rolls, but it's not enough. There's still information that we need and getting access to the SAVE Database will allow us to find even more people who may be on our rolls who are not citizens. 

Dr. Greg Murphy (NC-03): Secretary McGrane, your office has been sued for removing college student identification cards from the approval list of voter IDs for voter registration. How did that happen? What happened there?

Secretary McGrane: Idaho two years ago updated its Voter ID requirements to register to vote. I think to the core, how did it happen? I'm not sure, like was mentioned earlier -

Dr. Greg Murphy (NC-03): - did it affect turnout?

Secretary McGrane: It did not affect turnout. Actually, in this last election, overwhelmingly, 98.1% of Idaho voters showed in Idaho driver's license or ID card when they voted. Students, as well, use driver's licenses. 

Click the image or here to view Dr. Murphy's Q&A. 
4. Importance of voter signature verification

Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15): In 2024, Louisiana enacted House Bill 476, which requires that an absentee ballot delivered by a third-party be accompanied by a signed statement of the voter prepared by the Secretary of State, which attests the voter authorized the postal service or commercial carrier to deliver the ballot. So Secretary Landry, why is signature verification so crucial to Ballot integrity?

Secretary Landry: So we believe that the custody of your ballot is very important - the chain of custody and keeping track of that. So when you hand your ballot to somebody, you need to know who has your ballot and what they've done with it. So if they're unable to deliver themselves, or they need assistance, we ask them to put their name and signature on there as well so that we know who's delivered the ballot, and we know that they have permission to do that. 

Click the image or here to view Rep. Miller's Q&A.