Values for America · Brief for congressional offices
To the office of U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt
Citizen Voter Integrity and Federal Election Assurance Act of 2025
The measure, as described from the official record: To make crystal clear that only U.S. citizens may vote in federal elections, and to prevent noncitizens from casting ballots in U.S. congressional and presidential elections.
The proposal
Operative provisions (VFA proposal)
- funding source
- Deobligated unobligated balances from existing HAVA/EAC appropriations, plus a $1 fee on each new naturalization certificate issued by Department of Homeland Security; no new general tax.
- funding amount
- $50 million per year for 5 years (total $250 million).
- sunset years
- 5 years
- oversight body
- Election Assistance Commission with Inspector General audits; annual report to Congress on removals, errors, appeals, and provisional ballots.
- enforcement mechanism
- Attorney General may bring civil action in federal court to compel state compliance; states that knowingly violate the notice-and-appeal provisions lose 5% of HAVA funds for the year; noncitizens who vote are referred to ICE and remain subject to existing criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. § 611.
- effective date
- January 1, 2026, or 30 days after enactment, whichever is later.
Constitutional basis
- Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 (Spending Clause)
- Article I, Section 8, Clause 18 (Necessary and Proper Clause)
- Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 (Congressional regulation of federal elections)
- Amendment XIV, Section 5 (Enforcement Clause)
- Amendment X (reserved state power limit)
Concerns with the measure as written:
- The original's broad phrase 'citizens are eligible to vote Federal in elections' could be read as a new voter qualification imposed directly on states, intruding on the states' reserved power under Article I, Section 2, Clause 1 and the Tenth Amendment over their own election elector qualifications.
- A constitutional amendment is unnecessary because 18 U.S.C. § 611 already makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and Congress has Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 authority to make or alter time, place, and manner regulations for congressional elections, plus the Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18) to implement that power.
- Without explicit due-process safeguards, the amendment could invite states to purge voters based solely on database flags, risking erroneous removal of naturalized citizens and violating the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment (applicable to the federal government) and the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause (applicable to the states).
Why both sides can back it (VFA’s assessment)
Honors Democratic priorities by protecting every eligible citizen's right to vote through explicit due-process safeguards—mandatory 90-day notice, an appeal process, and count-only-after-verification provisional ballots—and by avoiding a divisive constitutional amendment, instead using federal grants rather than unfunded mandates. Honors Republican priorities by making noncitizen voting an effective federal enforcement priority, requiring citizenship verification, penalizing noncompliant states, and ensuring that noncitizens are removed from federal voter rolls.
Values for America is a nonpartisan, constitution-first SI think tank. This brief is informational. It is a policy proposal, not law, and it does not support or oppose any candidate or party. Full analysis and sources: https://www.valuesforamerica.com/solutions/247 · Methodology: https://www.valuesforamerica.com/methodology