United States President Donald Trump says he plans to sign an executive order which will require voter ID in elections across the country.
In a statement posted by Trump on social media on Saturday night, he is also seeking other reforms to how U.S. elections take place.
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Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!! Also, no mail-in voting, except for those that are very ill and the faraway military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!”
Earlier this year, President Trump previously attempted to impose voter ID via an executive order in a wider election integrity action.
In April this year, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down the portions of that order that related to voter identification requirements.
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Kollar-Kotelly maintained that Trump did not have the authority to issue such an order, as the Constitution delegates control of election regulations to Congress and states.
“Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would affect many of the changes the President purports to order,” Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, wrote in her order. “No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”
A Gallup poll conducted just before the 2024 elections found that requiring voters to present evidence of citizenship is still widely acceptable among Americans.
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According to the poll, 84% of adults in the United States support requiring voters to show identification, while 83% support demanding evidence of citizenship when registering for the first time.
Across political parties, 67% of Democrats, 84% of Independents, and 98% of Republicans support voter ID laws. The party breakdown on proof of citizenship was similar, with 66% of Democrats, 84% of Independents, and 96% of Republicans backing the concept.
