Rep. Bridal Stile pitches MEGA Act to tighten voter ID and ballot rules
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Summary
Rep. Bridal Stile said his MEGA Act would require citizenship verification, photo identification at the polls, paper-auditable ballots, and that ballots arrive by the end of election day; he tied those measures to provisions he says passed in the Save America Act and called on the Senate to act.
Congressman Bridal Stile, a Republican from Wisconsin, told host Constance that his Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act is a comprehensive package to ‘‘clean up our elections,’’ citing citizenship verification, mandatory photo identification and paper-auditable ballots.
Bridal Stile said two components of the MEGA Act—citizenship verification and photo ID—align with provisions he said passed the previous day in the Save America Act. "We need paper auditable ballots," he said, and added that ballots should be received by the end of election day.
Constance pressed how the measures could become law given Senate opposition. Bridal Stile blamed what he called the ‘‘zombie filibuster’’ and said senators are not bringing bills to the floor: "They're simply allowing senators to sit on the sidelines," he said. He named Senator Thune as someone who could try to move the legislation forward in the Senate.
An unidentified speaker speaking as a Democrat told the program that requiring ID to vote is not unreasonable and rejected characterizations that such rules are ‘‘Jim Crow.’’ The host repeated comments by Sen. John Fetterman asserting there is nothing wrong with showing ID to vote; Bridal Stile responded that requiring photo ID is a commonsense step and questioned why some Democratic leaders would block the measures.
The discussion focused on policy elements rather than implementation details. Specifics such as how citizenship verification would be carried out, which federal or state agencies would administer new processes, and how the MEGA Act would interact with existing state laws were not specified during the interview.
The interview closed with Bridal Stile reiterating the bill’s goals and saying he is hopeful it can pass if the Senate ends the current filibuster practice.
