Rep. Pete Sessions to Introduce Make Elections Secure Act – Would Eliminate Voting Machines and Ensure Hand-Marked Paper Ballots – Severely Restrict Mail-in Voting

The Gateway Pundit has obtained a draft copy of the Make Elections Secure Act (MESA), authored by Representative Pete Sessions (TX-17), which would repeal the outdated Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.

Among other things, it would also almost entirely eliminate electronic voting machines and ensure each voter casts their ballot on a hand-marked paper ballot with a manual hand-count. Exceptions for machine use would be permitted for voters requiring accessibility accommodations due to disabilities.

President Trump’s call to his cabinet and to the governors across the USA to make elections secure again! Paper ballots, no mail out, voter ID, shorter voting periods. #MESA #ARPX pic.twitter.com/nfJt0jVVXj

— COL Conrad Reynolds (@ColonelReynolds) February 27, 2025

The bill, which would also apply to primary elections, also “restrict[s] mailed ballots to specific eligible voters with stringent verification process.” As of now, those are outlined as active-duty military stationed outside their voting jurisdiction and those with a physician-certified medical condition that would prevent in-person voting.

MESA would also provide accountability to the public by ensuring “maximum transparency by providing public access to all election processes and comprehensive Election Data, including unscrambled ballot images and cast vote records, with at least five days for officials to upload data.”

During the 2020 election and those ensuing, election officials often denied access to certain public records or quoted exorbitant prices for public records requests. Garland Favorito and VoterGa have been engaged in a years-long battle to simply examine the physical paper ballots in the state of Georgia for the 2020 Election, despite a Supreme Court ruling that VoterGa did, in fact, have standing to bring their case. That decision was made in December of 2022, sending the case back to the lower courts where it’s been waiting for an assignment ever since.

Oftentimes, the costs for something as simple as providing the voter rolls to the public could range from free to several or even tens of thousands of dollars. Other times, one county would provide data, such as cast vote records or system log files, while others would deny the requests despite the counties being in the same state. This would sometimes lead to undue legal expenses and lengthy waits during critical timeframes to compel the counties to comply with lawful records requests.

The bill in its current form reads:

SECTION 201. HAND-MARKED PAPER BALLOTS MANDATORY
(a) Mandate—Every federal election and primary receiving public funds shall exclusively use
hand-marked paper ballots for vote casting, except for accommodations under Section 205
for voters with disabilities.
(b) Purpose—This requirement ensures a verifiable, tamper-resistant record of voter intent,
eliminating reliance on electronic systems prone to manipulation.

SECTION 202. BALLOT SPECIFICATIONS AND SECURITY
(a) Design—Ballots shall be printed on durable, tamper-evident paper with currency-type
security features (e.g., watermarks, embedded ultraviolet reflective flakes, holograms, etc.)
to prevent duplication or alteration.
(b) Production—States shall procure ballots from TRUST approved vendors, print ballots
ahead of the election, ensuring no electronic printing or encoding occurs at polling places.
(c) Marking Standards—Voters shall mark ballots with provided pens or pencils, ensuring clear,
human-readable selections without digital assistance.

SECTION 203. HAND COUNTING PROCEDURES AND REPORTING
(a) Initiation—Hand counting shall commence immediately after polls close on Election Day,
with no ballots counted prior to this time.
(b) Process—
1. Teams of at least two election officials, ideally from differing political affiliations,
shall count ballots in public view.
2. Ballots shall be tallied by contest, with overvotes and undervotes adjudicated
per state law by a bipartisan panel if disputed.
3. Results shall be tallied on standardized forms, signed by all counters, and
posted at the precinct.
(c) Reporting Deadline—Precinct results shall be reported to the state election authority within
four hours of polls closing, ensuring rapid, verifiable outcomes.
(d) Public Oversight—
4. Counting shall be observable by certified poll watchers and the public without restriction.

5. Live video streaming of the counting process is mandatory, with recordings
preserved for five years.

…

SECTION 206. BAN ON ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS
(a) Prohibition—No electronic voting systems, including touchscreen devices or barcode/QR
code systems, shall be used for ballot marking by the general electorate.
(b) Rationale—This ban eliminates vulnerabilities inherent in digital systems, relying solely on
hand-marked paper ballots for security.

SECTION 207. EARLY VOTING RESTRICTIONS
(a) Limit—Early in-person voting is permitted only on the three consecutive days immediately
preceding Election Day, using the same hand-marked paper ballots and paper poll books
as on Election Day.
(b) Purpose—This restriction concentrates voting activity, facilitating manageable hand counts
and reducing administrative complexity.