President Trump signed an government order on Tuesday that can require proof of U.S. citizenship on election kinds, in an aggressive push to catch and fight voter fraud, which is exceedingly uncommon however always cited by Mr. Trump as a cause he misplaced the 2020 election.
The order requires the Election Help Fee to require folks to point out government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, and directs state or native officers to file and confirm the data. It additionally seeks to require states to depend ballots by Election Day.
Administration officers, who solid the order as probably the most far-reaching in American historical past associated to elections, cited cracking down on immigrants illegally on voter rolls as one of many order’s primary objectives, amplifying Mr. Trump’s longstanding grievances about election integrity. He has falsely claimed that unlawful votes contributed to his shedding the 2020 election and the favored vote in 2016.
Like lots of Mr. Trump’s orders, this one is more likely to face authorized challenges for government overreach.
Rick Hasen, a political science professor and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project on the College of California, Los Angeles, College of Regulation, stated that Mr. Trump had no authority to dictate how states ran their elections, resembling requiring them to depend their ballots by Election Day.
Mr. Hasen added that Mr. Trump’s exertion of energy over the fee — which was created by legislation passed in Congress — would must be examined in court docket, since what he’s ordering them to do is “both opposite to legislation or at greatest disputed.”
