President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday mandating that individuals provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
The order states that people must provide government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, and all submitted ballots must be reviewed by Election Day. The order also directs the attorney general to form information-sharing agreements with state election officials to uncover any instances of election fraud or violations. According to the executive order, a state’s failure to do so could impact its eligibility for federal election-related funds.
“We believe that this Executive Order is the farthest-reaching executive action taken in the history of the republic to Secure our Elections,” wrote the President on Truth Social on March 25.
Before signing the order, President Trump said “other steps” will be taken “in the coming weeks.”
“We think we’ll be able to end up getting fair elections,” he said, per Fox News.
The order states that the U.S. currently “fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations, as well as those still developing.” The announcement highlighted the different methods of enhanced vote counting found in other nations, like India and Brazil’s use of biometric data or Germany and Canada’s use of publicly counted paper ballots.
“Further, while countries like Denmark and Sweden sensibly limit mail-in voting to those unable to vote in person and do not count late-arriving votes regardless of the date of postmark, many American elections now feature mass voting by mail, with many officials accepting ballots without postmarks or those received well after Election Day,” the order continued.
The order quickly received pushback, with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University posting on X that the move would “block tens of millions of American citizens from voting.”
“Presidents have no authority to do this. This order, like the SAVE Act now before Congress, would hurt voters and suppress the vote,” the group posted, referring to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, a bill that includes provisions mandating voters prove their U.S. citizenship with valid identification.
Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that a Texas law mandating voter identification for mail-in ballots is unconstitutional because it discriminates against voters with disabilities. In Texas, those who are 65 and older, incarcerated, have a disability or are out of the country during an election can submit votes by mail.