Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has introduced a proposal in Congress to establish new requirements around voting in Washington, D.C., amid the ongoing propagation of conspiracy theories from Republicans in elected office about U.S. elections.
Greene’s proposal “implements a mandatory photo voter ID requirement for both in-person and mail-in voting,” as summarized by an article that was posted on the Congresswoman’s official website, where support from other Republicans like Rep. Bryan Steil (Wisc.) is claimed. The push from Greene would also limit voter registration in Washington, D.C., to U.S. citizens, though there have sometimes been attempts to provide opportunities to vote to foreigners potentially impacted by local races.
The piece of writing on Greene’s site misrepresents comments in Congress provided by the leader of the D.C. Board of Elections, drawing some kind of negative implication from that official’s refusal to engage with Greene’s questioning about foreign meddling in U.S. races. In reality, the official explained at the time that such would simply be outside their job responsibilities. They weren’t meant to be opining but rather to be implementing the relevant election laws as established.
On Congress.gov, there are only two listed cosponsors in the House, which makes a claim of extensive backing for Greene’s measure dubious. Neither of the names listed is Steil. Instead, it’s GOP Reps. Greg Steube (Fla.) and Claudia Tenney (N.Y.), and the measure is listed as having been referred for consideration by the Committee on House Administration, which Steil leads.
In general, conspiracy theories about U.S. elections that allege imaginary fraud in what’s recently been seen in such contexts have persisted to an extreme extent in Republican circles. Greene herself has promoted in Congress the hollow conspiracy theories of some kind of fraud in the vote tabulation process in the Atlanta area in 2020, alleging there were “suitcases” of ballots that were simply votes in ordinary containers. Georgia authorities conducted an investigation into those claims, which implicated mother-and-daughter election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, and found nothing. It defies logic to suggest all the personnel involved in that investigation secretly joined a cover-up.
