Progressive organizations criticize the decision as an attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters lacking easy access to government identification.
President Donald Trump of the United States has enacted an executive order mandating that Americans provide proof of citizenship to vote, asserting that this action is essential to “clarify” issues of election fraud.
The order, signed by Trump on Tuesday, instructs the Election Assistance Commission to require that individuals registering for federal elections present a US passport or other acceptable government identification.
Additionally, the order mandates that US states must receive all ballots by election day and exclude mail-in ballots that arrive after polls have closed.
Trump claimed his order would “hopefully” eliminate election fraud, while reiterating his unfounded assertion that he won the 2020 presidential election by a “landslide”.
“At least this will go a long way toward ending it; other measures will be taken in the upcoming weeks, and we believe we can achieve fair elections,” Trump stated while signing the order at the White House.
“We need to rectify our election process,” Trump emphasized.
“This nation is suffering due to the elections, the fraudulent elections, and the flawed elections. We will correct this situation, one way or another.”
This order is part of Trump’s ongoing campaign against alleged election fraud, including claims about non-citizen voting, which is illegal and proven to be exceedingly rare according to studies.
He has frequently questioned the results of elections that did not favor him, including his 2020 loss to former President Joe Biden, which he baselessly attributed to widespread voting irregularities.
Democrats and progressive groups have consistently opposed GOP-led initiatives to require voter ID, arguing that this disproportionately affects low-income and elderly voters who may not have easy access to identification documents like passports and birth certificates.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a progressive advocacy organization, condemned Trump’s order as a “blatant attack on democracy” and an “authoritarian power grab”.
“Donald Trump’s executive order would undermine our election systems, suppress the votes of millions of Americans, especially voters of color, and set the stage for further unfounded Trumpian claims of election fraud,” Gilbert remarked in a statement.
Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California and the author of Election Law Blog, also criticized the order, asserting it would disenfranchise potentially millions of voters.
“This would stop only a minuscule number of noncitizen registrations but would hinder millions of eligible voters, who lack easy access to documents like passports, from registering to vote,” Hasen noted on his blog.
“The intention here is pure and simple voter suppression,” he concluded.
