Trump Issues Order Changing Election Rules
Trump administration wants proof of citizenship during voter registration, claims U.S. elections are not properly secured.
Donald Trump. Photo from the White House.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday seeking to make changes to elections across the country, claiming a widespread risk of foreign nationals voting in U.S. elections.
The order would require U.S. citizens to provide documents proving citizenship when registering to vote and withold federal funding from any states that do not implement the new provision.
The Trump administration alleges that U.S. elections are poorly secured and that current laws do not adequately prevent foreign nationals from voting or interfering in U.S. elections.
“Despite pioneering self-government, the United States now fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations, as well as those still developing,” the order states.
The order directs the independent, bipartisan Election Assistance Commission to update a national voter registration form to include a proof of citizenship requirement within 30 days, and to withhold federal funding for election administration from any states that do not use the form.
Posting on X.com, Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission, said Wisconsin is “exempt” from using the registration form. In 2023, the form was found in conflict with state law by a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge after the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sued, arguing the form did not meet requirements of state law.
“No voters are registering in Wisconsin using that form,” Jacobs wrote. “They are prohibited from doing so.”
Because proof of citizenship requirement does not take effect for 30 days it will not affect the upcoming April 1 election, Jacobs said. The state supreme court election between Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford and Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel has drawn national attention, and historic amounts of campaign spending. Trump has endorsed Schimel; Elon Musk has spent millions to support Schimel’s campaign; former president Barack Obama endorsed Crawford.
Another provision of the order would require states to maintain paper ballots, or paper records, of every vote. Wisconsin already does this, according to Jacobs.
Beyond requiring proof of citizenship, the order seeks to use the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Department of Homeland Security to check state voter rolls against federal immigration databases and state records.
Another provision to create formal agreements between states and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), to provide “detailed information on all suspected violations of State and Federal election laws discovered by State officials. States that refuse to enter into these agreements could lose federal funding and grants from the DOJ.
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Let me see! Maybe I’m naive or just uninformed but if birthright citizenship doesn’t work anymore (thus my birth certificate doesn’t fit the bill) and my discharge papers groom the army doesn’t work( some veterans aren’t citizens) what proof of citizenship is there? I guess my white skin and walking an animal on a leash I call a “dawg” are my only hope!! 🤓
I never want to see that oversize picture of Trump, again, in Urban Milwaukee.
A BS law based on baseless claims of voting irregularities. This will have the intended effect of disenfranchising poor people and (mostly) married women who’s birth certificates do not match their ID names.
Frump will always claim voter fraud until every reTrumplican candidate wins every contested election. This edict is just more BS from him and his autocratic, dictatorial perch in the White House. He can go f##k himself, for all I care.
Echoing and elaborating on the comment from mkeumkenews09: PLEASE, Urban Milwaukee editors, stop using this nightmarish photo of Frump. I beg you to replace it with the painted portrait Frump insisted be removed from the Colorado
Capitol!!! The one that looks like he caught the mumps immediately following full wisdom teeth extractions. PLEASE???
Do these Republican moron ever consider that stricter voting requirements might discourage some persons from voting who might regularly vote for Republican candidates?