Key Points:

• Lawmakers and election officials debated balancing voter access with public confidence in US elections
• Mississippi Senator Jeremy England proposed a bill requiring verification of citizenship for new voters
• A UC San Diego survey showed a 17-point decline in American confidence regarding election accuracy

CHICAGO — A bipartisan panel of lawmakers and top election administrators on Tuesday debated the delicate balance between allowing voters access to the polls and providing confidence in America’s election system, in what some dubbed the politicization of what should be the most nonpartisan of debates.

The Constitution’s delegation of powers over election processes and procedures to the states has led to a patchwork of rules, some of which vary wildly between states.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, cited election data showing about 80% of voters in his state cast absentee ballots when they vote. New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, administers elections in a state where fewer than 1 in 10 voters vote by mail.

“States get to do what the states want to do. That’s what the federal republic is about,” Fontes said. “We need to look at what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and if it’s not for every eligible voter first, then we’re doing it wrong.”

Mississippi Sen. Jeremy England, a Republican who chairs the Senate Elections Committee, authored  legislation this year that would require voter registrars to verify newly registered voters are citizens through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system. The bill, which is on hold pending a legal challenge, would mandate election administrators report annually how many residents have been flagged as potential noncitizens and removed from the rolls.

“It’s not a big problem in Mississippi that we have non-citizen voters. But as we all know that are involved in elections, perception is so big,” England said. “Consistently, the experts that I’ve heard from say this is the best system, this is the best database that we have to verify citizenship.”

President Donald Trump has routinely sought to undermine confidence in American elections, especially his defeat in 2020. Trump has asserted that thousands or millions of noncitizens have cast ballots. In fact, academic studies, the conservative Heritage Foundation and the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice have documented fewer than 100 cases of noncitizen voting in the last quarter century.

But Trump’s refusal to accept election results has led to a demonstrable decline in voter trust in American elections. A survey earlier this year by the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections at the University of California San Diego found 60% of Americans were confident votes will be counted accurately in this year’s midterm elections — a 17-point decline since just after the 2024 presidential election.

Virginia Sen. Aaron Rouse, a Democrat, said some states — including his own — have a history of erecting ballot access hurdles to exclude specific categories of voter.

“There’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the United States. So if we begin there, we ask ourselves the question: What are we trying to accomplish in terms of access to the ballot?” Rouse said. “When we look at this topic of proof of citizenship, this is not happening in a vacuum.”

England did not disagree: “In Mississippi, we have a history, and we have to address that,” he said.

In recent years, conservatives have introduced bills in at least 32 states to require voters to show proof of citizenship. In other states, citizens have referred initiatives to the ballot.

Some form of proof of citizenship is required in Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Ohio and Georgia, while Florida will begin requiring proof of citizenship next year. Trump is pressuring the U.S. Senate to advance the SAVE America Act, which would require new voters to prove their citizenship.

Fontes, who previously served as Maricopa County recorder, said the federal mandate would be unconstitutional.

“Given the unconstitutional mandates that we’ve seen coming out of the White House recently, I think we have to recognize that in this federal republic the Constitution is the supreme law of the land,” Fontes said. “The one chance citizens get, the one chance the government gets to keep us in our place, is the most heavily regulated.”

England said a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, in which justices ruled in favor a Mississippi bill allowing absentee ballots to be counted if they arrived at election offices several days late, would be a legislative priority when lawmakers return to session next year.

“That’s what the Supreme Court has allowed us to do,” England said.

Scanlan said court decisions in his state had found “very few instances” of residents being prosecuted for voting without citizenship. He said elections administrators need to strike a balance between allowing voters access to the polls and creating confidence in electoral systems.

“Voter turnout is directly tied to voter confidence. Voters have to believe their election process works, and if they do, they’re going to turn out to vote,” Scanlan said. “Above all, transparency is also incredibly important. Voters have to be able to see and understand how that process is working.”

Election administrators across the nation have asked state lawmakers to appropriate more money to help them accelerate vote counts, improve security and run offices that are chronically underfunded.

“We have a state legislature coupled with a federal government who refuse to give local elections officials the resources they need to be successful in these tasks,” Fontes said. “If you really care about election integrity, then fund the administration at the local level.”

Rouse, a former safety for the Green Bay Packers, joked that the crowd at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center had been more welcoming than crowds at nearby Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.

“As a former Packer player, this is the warmest reception I’ve ever received in Chicago,” he said.