WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that seeks to impose broad changes on how elections are conducted across the country, including the establishment of new voter identification requirements to prove U.S. citizenship in federal elections.
The order, which is expected to face legal challenges from voting rights organizations, comes as Trump continues to use baseless claims of voter fraud to argue that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite his victory in the 2024 election.
Non-US citizens are already unable to vote in federal elections. According to the order, the national mail voter registration form will require applicants to provide either a U.S. passport, a REAL ID driver’s license or state-issued card compliant with REAL standards, or a “valid Federal or State government-issued photo identification.”
The order requires states and local election officials to record and verify documents proving US citizenship and threatens to withhold federal election funds from states that do not comply.
Trump’s directive targets mail-in voting, which he has long criticized. It instructs his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to “take all necessary steps” to prevent states from counting absentee ballots received after Election Day.
Trump’s order seeks to dramatically shift election authority to the executive branch of the federal government. Although the federal government provides technical assistance and funding, federal elections are conducted entirely at the county level and overseen by secretaries of state.
“This country is so sick because of the fake elections and bad elections, and we are going to straighten it out one way or another,” Trump said before signing the order. “It is an honor to sign this one.”
Trump also directed Bondi to form “information-sharing agreements” with state election officials to target individuals who have committed election fraud, registered to vote while ineligible, provided false information on voter registration forms, or intimidated or threatened election officials or voters.
Furthermore, the order updates federal election standards for voting systems by requiring all ballots to include a voter-verifiable paper record to prevent fraud or errors.
“We believe that this executive order is the farthest-reaching executive action taken in the history of the Republic to secure our elections,” White House staff secretary Will Scharf told Trump after handing him the order to sign.
According to the National Conference of State Legislations, 36 states currently require voters to provide some form of identification at the polls to vote, whereas 14 states, mostly controlled by Democrats, and the District of Columbia do not.
Voting-rights organizations warn that voter identification requirements, long advocated by Republicans, may make it more difficult for eligible seniors, minorities, low-income people, and students to vote.
“This executive order, if it could survive the inevitable judicial challenge, would severely shift power over federal elections into the hands of the Presidency,” wrote UCLA law professor Rick Hasen on Election Law Blog.
“This would prevent only a tiny amount of noncitizen voter registration but stop millions of eligible voters, who do not have easy access to documents such as passports from registering to vote.”
Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, called Trump’s order a “blatant overreach that threatens to disenfranchise tens of millions of eligible voters.”
“This measure will no doubt disproportionately impact historically excluded communities, including voters of color, naturalized citizens, people with disabilities, and the elderly, by pushing unnecessary barriers to the fundamental right to vote,” Lakin told reporters.
With his signature, Trump also revoked former President Joe Biden’s “Promoting Access to Voting” 2021 executive order, which directed federal agencies to increase citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and learn about the electoral process.
Scharf claimed that the Biden-era order “essentially weaponized government to corrupt and pollute our election process.”
