Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring
proof of citizenship
[March 26, 2025]
By ALI SWENSON and CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping
executive action to overhaul elections in the U.S., including requiring
documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal
elections and demanding that all ballots be received by Election Day.
The order says the U.S. has failed “to enforce basic and necessary
election protections” and calls on states to work with federal agencies
to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes. It threatens to pull
federal funding from states where election officials don't comply.
The move, which is likely to face swift challenges because states have
broad authority to set their own election rules, is consistent with
Trump’s long history of railing against election processes. He often
claims elections are being rigged, even before the results are known,
and has waged battles against certain voting methods since he lost the
2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden and falsely blamed it on widespread
fraud.
Trump has focused particularly on mail voting, arguing without evidence
that it’s insecure and invites fraud even as he has shifted his position
on the issue given its popularity with voters, including Republicans.
While fraud occurs, it’s rare, limited in scope and gets prosecuted.
The order’s documentary proof of citizenship requirement signals that
the president is not waiting for congressional Republicans to pass their
long-anticipated Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act,
which has aimed to do the same thing.
Republicans have defended that measure as necessary to restore public
confidence in elections. Voting in federal elections by noncitizens is
already illegal and can result in felony charges and deportation.
Voting rights groups have expressed concerns that the requirement could
disenfranchise people. An estimated 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age,
or 21.3 million people, do not have proof of citizenship readily
available, according to a 2023 report by the Brennan Center for Justice
and other groups.
There are also concerns that married women who have changed their names
will encounter trouble when trying to register because their birth
certificates list their maiden names. Such hiccups happened in recent
town elections in New Hampshire, which has a new state law requiring
proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Trump's order directs federal agencies including the Department of
Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration and the State
Department to share with election officials federal data that could help
them identify noncitizens on their rolls.
It also says the attorney general should “prioritize enforcement of
federal election integrity laws” in states that don't share information
about suspected election crimes with the federal government.
The order aims to require votes to be “cast and received” by Election
Day and says federal funding should be conditional on state compliance.
Currently, 18 states and Puerto Rico accept mailed ballots received
after Election Day as long they are postmarked on or before that date,
according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Trump's order is likely to face legal challenges, given that the
Constitution gives authority over elections to the states. While
Congress has the power to regulate voting — and has done so to pass such
laws as the Voting Rights Act — the Constitution makes clear that states
have primary authority to set the “times, places and manner” for
elections.
Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state, Jena Griswold, called the
order an “unlawful” weaponization of the federal government and said
Trump is “trying to make it harder for voters to fight back at the
ballot box.”
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A sign for new voter registration is seen outside a polling location
at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, N.H., Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP
Photo/Reba Saldanha)
Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the ranking member of the
House committee that oversees elections, said the executive order
“is not just misguided — it is immoral and illegal.”
At least one Democratic attorney on Tuesday threatened legal action.
Marc Elias, who has been the subject of Trump's ire, said in a
social media post: “This will not stand. We will sue.”
The executive branch does have some authority over elections, said
Justin Levitt, a constitutional law expert and former White House
senior policy adviser during the Biden administration. He said some
federal agencies provide election support, including the U.S.
Election Assistance Commission, which distributes federal grant
money to states and runs a voluntary certification program for
voting systems. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security
Agency helps election officials protect their systems.
Former President Biden issued an executive order in 2021 directing
federal agencies to take steps to boost voter registration, which
drew complaints from Republicans who called it federal overreach.
Trump has rescinded that order.
Trump's order calls on the Election Assistance Commission to amend
voting system guidelines to protect election integrity, including
guidance that voting systems should not use a ballot that uses a
barcode or QR code in the vote counting process. It said the
commission should condition the funding it distributes to states on
those new guidelines.
Virtually all in-person voters in Georgia, as well as voters in
several other states, use voting machines with a large touchscreen
to record their votes. The machines then print a paper ballot with a
human-readable summary of the voter’s selections and a QR code, a
type of barcode, that is read by a scanner to count the votes.
It is not entirely clear how the executive order would affect
Georgia and the other jurisdictions that use these machines.
Representatives for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger did not
immediately respond Tuesday evening to messages seeking comment.
Raffensperger issued a statement thanking Trump for the executive
order, calling it a “great first step for election integrity reform
nationwide.”
Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House committee
that oversees elections, said the order is a “welcome action to
secure our elections and prevent foreign influence.”
Mike Lindell, a Trump ally who spreads election conspiracies and who
wants to ban voting systems in favor of hand-counting ballots,
fundraised off the news on Tuesday, saying in an email it will fix
our “sick elections.”
Trump's executive order comes as the Republican National Committee
launched a massive effort to probe voter registration list
maintenance nationwide. The committee sent public records requests
this week asking for documents related to voter roll list
maintenance in 48 states and Washington, D.C., asserting that the
public should know how states are removing ineligible people from
voter rolls, including dead people and non-citizens.
Trump referenced election fraud as he signed the order Tuesday,
saying, “this will end it, hopefully.” He added that more election
actions would be taken in coming weeks.
___
Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Will
Weissert in Washington and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to
this report.
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