President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that would require proof of U.S. citizenship before a person would be able to vote in federal elections.
According to NBC News, Justin Levitt, a constitutional scholar at the Loyola Law School told the news outlet that despite the executive order, Trump has almost no power over elections.
“The president’s got almost no power over federal elections,” Levitt told NBC News “As the senior policy adviser for democracy and voting rights in the last administration, one of the things that was very clear is how little power the president has over federal elections — by design.”
In the order, it states that the U.S. has failed to enforce its election protections, and notes that other countries have stricter requirements.
“Despite pioneering self-government, the United States now fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations, as well as those still developing,” the order reads.
It goes on to point out that India and Brazil have tied voter identification to a biometric database, Germany and Canada require the use of paper ballots when tabulating votes and they are counted by local officials. Denmark and Sweden limit the amount of mail-in voting they will accept and both countries do not count late votes.
“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 states.
Trump wants voters to use a U.S. passport, a REAL ID that shows citizenship, an official military ID card, or a valid federal or state government-issued photo ID that indicates citizenship or is accompanied by other proof of U.S. citizenship.
The president further called on the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of State, and the Department of Homeland Security to ensure state and local officials have access to appropriate systems to citizenship verification, and to coordinate with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) administrator to work on a publicly available voter registration list.
The Associated Press reported that the executive order comes on the heels of the Republican National Committee launching a voter registration list maintenance probe, sending out public records request earlier this week related to voter roll list maintenance in 48 states and Washington D.C.
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