Democracy works only if the losers believe they lost. Today, whichever side loses stops believing it. The CLEAR Act sets rules both sides can check, and agree to, before anyone knows who will win: only eligible people vote, every eligible vote counts, and the count is proven right.
Every State gets the federal government’s citizenship and death records free, and no one is removed from the rolls on one bad database match. States that join the Voter Trust Standard also confirm every new voter is a citizen and match every ballot to a real voter, with free ID.
Everywhere: paper ballots, no internet in the count, observers from both parties at every step, and no paid ballot harvesting. In States that join the Standard: cameras on the ballots, trackable mail ballots and faster counts.
Everywhere: no rule changes in the last 120 days, certifying is a duty, and no candidate referees his own race. In States that join the Standard, paper ballots are audited before anyone is certified the winner.
Elections for Congress, and for President in States that accept the act’s funding. Every State must meet a short Trust Floor; each State chooses whether to join the fuller Voter Trust Standard. States keep running elections, and Congress pays the cost.
You may remember different examples depending on where you sit. The fix is the same.
And both sides remember Russia targeting election systems in all 50 States and an AI fake of a President’s voice telling voters to stay home. The lesson is the same: in 2020, 75% of Republicans and 46% of Democrats trusted the coming election; by 2022 it had flipped to 46% and 81%. Rules that only one side trusts last until that side loses.
Every other right depends on this one. When half the country thinks an election was stolen, the winner can’t govern, the loser won’t accept it, and the people who count the votes get threatened. Here is what has gone wrong, and what the act does about each.
The color on the left edge shows whose worry it mostly was. Most of the time, the side that lost was the side that doubted.
The act has 12 packages in two parts: six that every State must meet (the Trust Floor) and six that each State chooses to join together (the Voter Trust Standard). Together they keep five promises. Tap a number to read the package behind it.
Congress has the power to set rules for congressional elections, but the act uses it sparingly. A short floor applies everywhere; most States already meet it. The bigger, more debated reforms are a standard each State chooses to join.
Why States would join: the act pays the full cost plus a 25% security bonus, and a public scorecard shows every State’s gaps. Why they can’t cherry-pick: the “Voter Trust Certified” label and the bonus require every part, so a State can’t take only its party’s half.
No federal agency runs, counts or certifies any election, and no national voter list is created. A State whose own law already meets a standard keeps its law. Federal agencies get rules too: share data free, fix their errors, keep seized ballots sealed, and stay out of rule-setting by executive order.
CLEAR is a companion to the Public Trust Act, whose Package 12 protects election workers from threats, keeps voters’ private data from federal agencies, bars Presidents from setting election rules by order, keeps armed federal agents away from polling places, lets courts compel on-time certification and bans mid-decade redistricting, and whose Package 13 shows who pays for political ads. CLEAR doesn’t repeat them; it covers what happens from registration to certification.
Your choices stay in your browser. Use them in step 6 to write to your representatives.
Required in every State for federal elections, or binding on the federal government. Each applies the same way whichever party is in power.
These apply only in States that join. Checking one means you’d want your State to adopt it; to be certified, a State adopts them all.
You’ll hear this proposal praised and attacked. Here is how each side is likely to talk about it, the strongest honest criticisms, and the answers.
Each criticism is stated in its strongest honest form.
Expect different messengers to cheer different packages and attack others. Knowing who stands to gain or lose helps you read the ads.
| Messenger | Likely to support | Likely to attack | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right-leaning cable, talk radio and websites | Citizenship checks, voter ID, paper ballots, observers, limits on paid ballot collection | Removal safeguards, the federal-seizure rules, the fact-finding panel | Calling the whole act “soft on fraud” because of one package |
| Left-leaning cable, podcasts and websites | Removal safeguards, free ID, wait-time standard, certification duty, seizure rules | Citizenship verification and ID as “voter suppression” | Ignoring that the documents and IDs are free and current voters are grandfathered |
| Independent podcasters and creators | Paper, audits, cameras, the rule freeze | Anything that sounds like more bureaucracy | Clips without context; check the bill text in step 7 |
| State and county election officials | Free federal data, funding, early mail processing, bipartisan teams | Any requirement that arrives without money or time | “Federal takeover” claims; the act funds first and lets States choose methods |
| Voting-equipment vendors | Funding for new equipment | Ownership disclosure, source-code review, no-internet rule | “Security” objections that are really about secrecy |
| Campaign and party lawyers | Whatever helps their side this cycle | Whatever helps the other side | Lawsuits filed in the last weeks before an election; the freeze applies to settlements too |
| Civil-liberties groups, left and right | Removal safeguards, no-censorship rule, privacy limits on ID numbers | Parts they think are too weak | Useful detailed critiques; read them |
Whatever party they belong to. A yes should mean the same thing when their own party loses.
Short, personal messages that name specific reforms get noticed. Your message below uses the reforms you checked in step 4.
Send the page, or copy a one-page summary to paste into an email, a post or a document you can print.
Part 1 is the Trust Floor, which every State must meet. Part 2 is the Voter Trust Standard, which each State chooses to join. Open any package to see what it does, why, what critics say, and the bill text itself.
Created by a deeply concerned citizen with the help of generative AI tools.
This page is the public summary of a citizens’ proposal called the CLEAR Act, formally the Voter Trust Act. It has not been introduced in Congress. The draft legislative text still needs review by election-law and constitutional lawyers, by State and local election officials of both parties, and cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
It is a companion to the Public Trust Act, which sets the same rules for every official, the STEADY Act, which covers money, debt and prices, and the LEVEL Act, which covers the courts. CLEAR does not repeat the Public Trust Act’s Packages 12 and 13. All four work under today’s Constitution.
It was published days before the November 3, 2026 midterm elections. Nothing here is about who should win them, and none of it would apply to them.
Content matches the plan draft v0.1 of October 31, 2026. Facts are sourced below; the type of each source is noted so you can judge it yourself.
To every Senator and Representative, of every party:
Your constituents have lost faith in elections, and they take turns losing it. In 2020 Democrats doubted; by 2022 Republicans did; this year confidence on both sides has slid again. Each side remembers a different wrong: purged voters and closed polling places, noncitizens on the rolls and paid ballot harvesting, machines that were trusted too much or blamed without evidence, officials who refused to certify and agents who carried off ballots.
The CLEAR Act asks you to fix the rules, not to win the next election. Let the government check citizenship with its own records, and remove no voter without two sources and a notice. Match every ballot to a voter, and make ID free. Put every vote on paper, keep machines off the internet, let both parties watch every step, and audit the paper before anyone certifies. Freeze the rules 120 days out, make certification a duty, and keep candidates from refereeing their own races. Pay for all of it, require only a short floor, and let each State choose whether to adopt the fuller standard, both sides’ parts together.
Each package can pass on its own. We ask you to co-sponsor them with a member of the other party, to keep supporting them after your party loses an election, and to tell us publicly where you stand on each one.
Respectfully,
Your constituents
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