Despite Trump order, Illinois won’t require voter proof of citizenship
[March 28, 2025]
By Peter Hancock
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois voters casting ballots in the April 1
consolidated elections will not be required to show proof of U.S.
citizenship, despite an executive order issued this week by President
Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, March 25, Trump issued an executive order directing federal
agencies to implement and enforce a nationwide requirement that voters
show documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when they register to vote.
Matt Dietrich, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said
in an email Thursday that under existing federal law, known as the
National Voter Registration Act, voters only need to sign a sworn
statement on their voter registration application that they are a U.S.
citizen. He also said Illinois does not require voters to show any type
of photo ID at the polls.
Among other things, Trump’s executive order directs the federal Election
Assistance Commission to amend the federal voter registration form to
include a space in which state or local officials are to record the type
of citizenship document the applicant provides.
It also directs the commission to withhold federal election funds from
states that refuse to accept federal registration forms containing the
proof of citizenship information.
The executive order limits the types of acceptable documents to U.S.
passports, state-issued driver’s licenses or identification cards that
are compliant with the federal REAL ID Act, official military ID cards
that indicate the applicant is a U.S. citizen, or a valid state or
federal government-issued photo ID that indicates the applicant is a
U.S. citizen.
It also directs the Department of Homeland Security, in coordination
with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to review each
state’s publicly available voter registration list, alongside federal
immigration databases and state records to determine whether they are
consistent with federal requirements that prohibit noncitizens from
voting.
David Becker, an election law expert and director of the nonprofit
Center for Election Innovation and Research, said during a media
briefing Thursday that he doubts the executive order will withstand an
almost certain legal challenge because it goes beyond a president’s
constitutional authority.
[to top of second column]
|
People voting in Springfield during the 2024 general election in
November. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Campbell)
He pointed to Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives
states the power to determine the time, places and manner of holding
elections, “but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such
Regulations, except as to the Places of (choosing) Senators.”
“What we have here is an executive power grab, an attempt by the
president of the United States to dictate to states how they run
elections, to dictate to them how they should exercise the power that is
granted to them by the Constitution and to bypass Congress in doing so,”
he said.
Since Trump’s first election in 2016, when he won the electoral vote but
lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump has repeated
baseless claims that large numbers of noncitizens are voting illegally
in U.S. elections.
Shortly after taking office for the first time in 2017, Trump formed the
short-lived Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to
review claims of voter fraud, improper registration and voter
suppression. But the commission disbanded in less than a year amid a
flurry of lawsuits and pushback from states, including Illinois, over
access to their voter registration lists.
Illinois law at that time prohibited the release of “any portion” of the
state’s complete, centralized voter registration database to anyone
other than state or local political committees or “a government entity
for a governmental purpose.”
Dietrich said the state board has since begun making available to the
public an abridged voter registration database that does not include
voters’ complete home addresses.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
 |
