Democrats are stepping up their opposition to one of President Trump’s latest executive orders, which would require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.
The order directs state and local officials to record on voter registration forms “the type of document that the applicant presented as documentary proof of United States citizenship,” such as a passport, Real ID, or another state or federal issue identification that proves citizenship, among other aspects.
Critics say the order will only result in large swaths of voters being disenfranchised, and multiple groups, including the Democratic National Committee, have filed lawsuits over the executive order to block it from moving forward.
“There are multiple problems with it,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told The Hill.
“The president [of] United States does not control voting laws. The states control voting laws in America, and Congress can regulate, but Congress has not passed anything the president’s talking about,” added Raskin, who’s also a constitutional law professor,.
Trump late last month signed an executive order that said it was “the policy of my Administration to enforce Federal law and to protect the integrity of our election process.”
In addition to requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, it would also allow the advisory Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in tandem with the Department of Homeland Security, to “review each State’s publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities.”
The executive order directs members of Trump’s Cabinet to make sure state and local officials have access to systems that can verify a voters’ citizenship or immigration status. And it looks to enter into information-sharing agreements with each state’s chief election official to tackle potential election law violations; if states don’t cooperate with the Justice Department, states could see federal funding withheld.
The proof of citizenship portion of the executive order aligns closely with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which congressional Republicans are pushing. The legislation would require documentary proof of citizenship when voters register to vote.
“Congress acting here would be able to go further than what the executive order can do,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, which supports Trump’s order.
“This doesn’t absolve Congress of its responsibility, I think, to protect the federal elections, and it doesn’t absolve the states, either,” he added.
Trump and his allies have made election interference and fraud central issues — particularly since the 2020 election when Trump narrowly lost to former President Biden — despite the fact that election fraud has been found to be rare. It’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal and state elections.
At least three different coalitions have since filed lawsuits against the Trump administration seeking to bar it from being enforced as of Monday morning.
One of those coalitions, which includes the Democratic National Committee and multiple Democratic groups in addition to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), argue in a suit filed Monday that millions of Democrats and supporters would have a harder time registering to vote, ...
