President Donald Trump announced Saturday night on Truth Social his intention to issue an executive order requiring all voters in the country to present proper identification.
Trump emphasized that voter ID “should be on every ballot. No exceptions!” and said he would “issue an executive order to that effect.”
The announcement also included his intention to eliminate mail-in voting, except for the critically ill and military personnel serving overseas.
Why It Matters
This latest announcement follows the president’s March executive order, which already required proof of citizenship to register for federal elections and mandated that all ballots be received by Election Day.
The new voter ID proposal would add additional voter requirements to the citizenship verification procedures already in place.
Trump’s proposed executive order would expand his ongoing election reform beyond registration requirements to include the voting process itself. If implemented, mandatory voter ID could affect millions of Americans, particularly in states that currently allow voting without photo ID.
This announcement indicates that Trump is not waiting for congressional Republicans to pass his much-anticipated Protecting American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which aims to implement similar citizenship requirements through legislation.
Federal elections are administered at the state level, raising constitutional questions about the president’s authority to impose uniform voter ID requirements.
Voter ID laws vary widely from state to state: some require photo ID, while others accept other methods of verification or signed affidavits.
The president’s March executive order already required proof of citizenship for voter registration and required ballots to be received by Election Day, threatening federal funding for states that failed to comply.
The executive order directed agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA), to share data with election officials to identify potential non-citizens on the voter rolls.
The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that 21.3 million U.S. citizens lack readily available proof of citizenship, raising concerns about potential disenfranchisement.
Voting rights groups have expressed particular concerns about married women who have changed their names because their birth certificates list their maiden names—problems already seen in New Hampshire municipal elections under that state’s new citizenship law. The president has repeatedly pushed unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud and non-citizen voting, despite claims by election security experts that such incidents are rare.
Trump continues to advocate the use of paper ballots and hand counting over electronic systems, even though election officials warn that these methods are more time-consuming, more expensive, and less accurate. He persists in his false claims about the 2020 election, continuing, without evidence, to claim that his defeat to former President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud.