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Trump indicators order requiring proof of citizenship to vote in elections

Trump indicators order requiring proof of citizenship to vote in elections

USA, Featured1 month ago5 Views

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump signed an govt order Tuesday that appears to pressure sweeping modifications on how elections are performed throughout the nation together with establishing new voter identification necessities to show U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections.

The order, which is predicted to face authorized challenges by voting rights teams, comes as Trump continues to push baseless claims of voter fraud to argue the 2020 election was stolen from him regardless of his victory within the 2024 election.

Non-U.S. residents are already not allowed to vote in federal elections. However below the order, the nationwide mail voter registration type would require that candidates present both a U.S. passport, a REAL ID driver’s license or state-issued card compliant with REAL requirements, or a “legitimate Federal or State government-issued photograph identification.”

The order directs states and native election officers to report and confirm the paperwork proving U.S. citizenship and threatens to withhold federal election-related funds from states that don’t comply.

The directive additionally takes intention at mail-in voting ‒ a apply Trump has lengthy criticized ‒ by instructing his lawyer common, Pam Bondi, to “take all mandatory steps” to make sure states do not depend absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day.

Trump’s order seeks to dramatically shift authority over elections to the manager department of the federal authorities. Though the federal authorities gives technical help and funding, federal elections are run solely on the county degree, overseen by secretaries of state.

“This nation is so sick due to the the pretend elections and the dangerous elections, and we’ll straighten it out somehow,” Trump stated earlier than signing the order. “It is an honor to signal this one.”

Trump additionally ordered Bondi to enter into “information-sharing agreements” with state election officers to focus on people who’ve dedicated election fraud, registered to vote regardless of being ineligible, offered false info on voter registration types and intimidated or threatened election officers or voters.

As well as, the order updates federal elections requirements for voting programs by requiring all ballots produce a voter-verifiable paper report to stop fraud or errors.

“We consider that this govt order is the farthest-reaching govt motion taken within the historical past of the Republic to safe our elections,” Will Scharf, White Home workers secretary, stated to Trump after handing him the order to signal.

Thirty-six states at the moment require voters to supply some type of identification on the polls to vote, in accordance with the Nationwide Convention of State Legislations, whereas 14 states, principally managed by Democrats, and the District of Columbia should not have such restrictions.

Voting-rights teams warn that voter identification necessities, lengthy championed by Republicans, could make it tougher for eligible seniors, minorities, low-income and college students to vote.

“This govt order, if it may survive the inevitable judicial problem, would severely shift energy over federal elections into the fingers of the Presidency,” wrote UCLA legislation professor Rick Hasen on Election Regulation Weblog. “This is able to forestall solely a tiny quantity of noncitizen voter registration however cease hundreds of thousands of eligible voters, who should not have easy accessibility to paperwork akin to passports from registering to vote.”

Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Challenge, slammed Trump’s order as a “blatant overreach that threatens to disenfranchise tens of hundreds of thousands of eligible voters.”

“This measure will little question disproportionately affect traditionally excluded communities, together with voters of colour, naturalized residents, individuals with disabilities, and the aged, by pushing pointless obstacles to the basic proper to vote,” Lakin stated.

Together with his signature, Trump additionally revoked former President Joe Biden’s “Selling Entry to Voting” 2021 govt order, which had instructed federal businesses to develop residents’ alternatives to register to vote and procure details about the electoral course of.

Scharf stated the Biden-era order “basically weaponized authorities to deprave and pollute our election course of.”

Attain Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.