| National
|
[
National ] [ Main Menu ] |
|
|
|
447118 |
|
|
Date: March 26, 2025 at 04:44:24
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: AP... Trump signs executive order seeking to overhaul US elections |
URL: https://apnews.com/article/voting-elections-trump-executive-order-4e9edb53f47e61e241a43ceef8164022# |
|
Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of
citizenship
BY ALI SWENSON AND CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY
March 25, 2025
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping
executive action to overhaul elections in the U.S., including requiring
documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and
demanding that all ballots be received by Election Day.
The order says the U.S. has failed “to enforce basic and necessary election
protections” and calls on states to work with federal agencies to share voter
lists and prosecute election crimes. It threatens to pull federal funding from
states where election officials don’t comply.
The move, which is likely to face swift challenges because states have broad
authority to set their own election rules, is consistent with Trump’s long history
of railing against election processes. He often claims elections are being
rigged, even before the results are known, and has waged battles against
certain voting methods since he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden
and falsely blamed it on widespread fraud.
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump has focused particularly on mail voting, arguing without evidence that
it’s insecure and invites fraud even as he has shifted his position on the issue
given its popularity with voters, including Republicans. While fraud occurs, it’s
rare, limited in scope and gets prosecuted.
MORE ELECTION COVERAGE
Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs gives the State of the State address in
the House of Representatives at the Capitol Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, in Phoenix.
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Arizona’s Democratic governor faces uphill battle as Republicans control
Legislature
President Joe Biden waits to speak about foreign policy at the State
Department in Washington, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Biden says he’s leaving Trump with a ‘strong hand to play’ in world conflicts
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey and his wife, Denise, greet people
following his swearing-in at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on Monday,
Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson)
West Virginia’s conservative shift could sharpen under its new governor
The order’s documentary proof of citizenship requirement signals that the
president is not waiting for congressional Republicans to pass their long-
anticipated Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which has
aimed to do the same thing.
Republicans have defended that measure as necessary to restore public
confidence in elections. Voting in federal elections by noncitizens is already
illegal and can result in felony charges and deportation.
Voting rights groups have expressed concerns that the requirement could
disenfranchise people. An estimated 9% of U.S. citizens of voting age, or 21.3
million people, do not have proof of citizenship readily available, according to a
2023 report by the Brennan Center for Justice and other groups.
ADVERTISEMENT
There are also concerns that married women who have changed their names
will encounter trouble when trying to register because their birth certificates list
their maiden names. Such hiccups happened in recent town elections in New
Hampshire, which has a new state law requiring proof of citizenship to register
to vote.
Trump’s order directs federal agencies including the Department of Homeland
Security, the Social Security Administration and the State Department to share
with election officials federal data that could help them identify noncitizens on
their rolls.
It also says the attorney general should “prioritize enforcement of federal
election integrity laws” in states that don’t share information about suspected
election crimes with the federal government.
The order aims to require votes to be “cast and received” by Election Day and
says federal funding should be conditional on state compliance. Currently, 18
states and Puerto Rico accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as
long they are postmarked on or before that date, according to the National
Conference of State Legislatures.
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump’s order is likely to face legal challenges, given that the Constitution gives
authority over elections to the states. While Congress has the power to regulate
voting — and has done so to pass such laws as the Voting Rights Act — the
Constitution makes clear that states have primary authority to set the “times,
places and manner” for elections.
Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state, Jena Griswold, called the order an
“unlawful” weaponization of the federal government and said Trump is “trying
to make it harder for voters to fight back at the ballot box.”
Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the ranking member of the House
committee that oversees elections, said the executive order “is not just
misguided — it is immoral and illegal.”
At least one Democratic attorney on Tuesday threatened legal action. Marc
Elias, who has been the subject of Trump’s ire, said in a social media post: “This
will not stand. We will sue.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The executive branch does have some authority over elections, said Justin
Levitt, a constitutional law expert and former White House senior policy adviser
during the Biden administration. He said some federal agencies provide
election support, including the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which
distributes federal grant money to states and runs a voluntary certification
program for voting systems. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security
Agency helps election officials protect their systems.
Former President Biden issued an executive order in 2021 directing federal
agencies to take steps to boost voter registration, which drew complaints from
Republicans who called it federal overreach. Trump has rescinded that order.
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump’s order calls on the Election Assistance Commission to amend voting
system guidelines to protect election integrity, including guidance that voting
systems should not use a ballot that uses a barcode or QR code in the vote
counting process. It said the commission should condition the funding it
distributes to states on those new guidelines.
Virtually all in-person voters in Georgia, as well as voters in several other states,
use voting machines with a large touchscreen to record their votes. The
machines then print a paper ballot with a human-readable summary of the
voter’s selections and a QR code, a type of barcode, that is read by a scanner to
count the votes.
It is not entirely clear how the executive order would affect Georgia and the
other jurisdictions that use these machines. Representatives for Secretary of
State Brad Raffensperger did not immediately respond Tuesday evening to
messages seeking comment. Raffensperger issued a statement thanking
Trump for the executive order, calling it a “great first step for election integrity
reform nationwide.”
Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House committee that
oversees elections, said the order is a “welcome action to secure our elections
and prevent foreign influence.”
Mike Lindell, a Trump ally who spreads election conspiracies and who wants to
ban voting systems in favor of hand-counting ballots, fundraised off the news
on Tuesday, saying in an email it will fix our “sick elections.”
Trump’s executive order comes as the Republican National Committee
launched a massive effort to probe voter registration list maintenance
nationwide. The committee sent public records requests this week asking for
documents related to voter roll list maintenance in 48 states and Washington,
D.C., asserting that the public should know how states are removing ineligible
people from voter rolls, including dead people and non-citizens.
Trump referenced election fraud as he signed the order Tuesday, saying, “this
will end it, hopefully.” He added that more election actions would be taken in
coming weeks.
___
Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in
Washington and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.
___
The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to
enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about
AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
ALI SWENSON
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
[447119] |
|
447119 |
|
|
Date: March 26, 2025 at 04:47:40
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Data indicates voting by noncitizens is rare |
URL: https://apnews.com/article/noncitizens-voting-republicans-election-2024-immigration-09b86e6768f755fd875f3c51b0e8ea70 |
|
POLITICS
Data indicates voting by noncitizens is rare. Republicans are pressing measures
to make sure of it
BY DAVID A. LIEB
September 9, 2024
Only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in this fall’s election for president and
other top offices. While that’s nothing new, the potential for noncitizens to
register or vote has been receiving a lot of attention lately.
Citing an influx of immigrants in recent years at the U.S.-Mexico border,
Republicans have raised concerns about the possibility that noncitizens will be
voting — something that has rarely occurred in the past. In Congress, House
Speaker Mike Johnson is seeking to link an extension of federal government
spending authority to a proposal requiring states to obtain proof of citizenship
when registering people to vote.
In various states, GOP officials have launched reviews of voter rolls, issued
executive orders and placed constitutional amendments on state ballots as part
of an emphasis on thwarting noncitizen voting. Some Democrats contend the
measures could create hurdles for legal voters, are unnecessary and lead
people to believe the problem of noncitizens voting is bigger than it really is.
What does the law say?
A 1996 U.S. law makes it illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections for president
or members of Congress. Violators can be fined and imprisoned for up to a
year. They can also be deported.
When people register to vote, they confirm under penalty of perjury that they
are U.S. citizens. Federal law requires states to regularly maintain their voter
rolls and remove anyone who is ineligible, a process that could identify
immigrants living in the country illegally.
No state constitutions explicitly allow noncitizens to vote, and many states have
laws that prohibit noncitizens from voting for state offices such as governor or
attorney general. But some municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont,
as well as the District of Columbia, do allow voting by noncitizens in some local
elections such as for school board and city council.
ADVERTISEMENT
What is Congress doing?
Congress needs to approve a stopgap spending bill before the Sept. 30 end of
the budget year to avoid a government shutdown. At the urging of some
Republicans, Johnson is seeking to combine a six-month extension of
government spending with a measure requiring proof of citizenship, such as
birth certificate or passport, to register to vote.
Johnson said Congress has a responsibility to “ensure that only American
citizens can decide American elections.”
The plan is similar to a bill Republicans pushed earlier this year known as the
Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. That legislation passed the
Republican-led House in July largely along partisan lines but has not come to a
vote in the Democratic-led Senate.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday that he opposes the
latest Republican attempt to require proof of citizenship for voter registration.
He said the stopgap spending bill should be free of “partisan policy changes.”
The Biden administration also has opposed the Republican efforts while
asserting that existing laws against noncitizen voting are working.
ADVERTISEMENT
What does the data say?
Data from states indicates that voting by noncitizens is rare, But Republican
officials have highlighted voter registration reviews that turned up potential
noncitizens.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said last month that more than 6,500
potential noncitizens have been removed from Texas voter rolls since 2021,
including 1,930 with “a voter history” who have been referred for investigation
by the attorney general’s office. Texas has almost 18 million registered voters.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, said in August that he
referred for potential prosecution 138 apparent noncitizens found to have voted
in a recent election and 459 more who registered but did not vote. Those
figures were higher than reviews from previous years but a small fraction of the
more than 8 million registered voters in Ohio.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican, recently announced that
3,251 people previously identified as noncitizens by the federal government are
being switched to inactive status on the state’s voter registration rolls. They will
be required to provide proof of citizenship and fill out a form to vote this fall.
Alabama has more than 3 million registered voters.
ADVERTISEMENT
In Georgia, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger found that 1,634
potential noncitizens tried to register to vote between 1997 and 2022, though
election officials flagged them and none was registered. Georgia registered
millions of other voters during that time.
Some election administration experts have said the voter roll reviews show that
current tools to flag noncitizen voters are working.
What do the courts say?
Arizona provides a case study for the long-running attempts by Republicans to
prohibit noncitizen voting.
Under a 2004 voter-approved initiative, Arizona required a driver’s license, birth
certificate, passport or other similar document to approve a federal voter
registration application. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that Arizona
cannot require documentary proof of citizenship for people to vote in federal
elections.
ADVERTISEMENT
The state responded by creating two classes of voters. For state and local
elections, voters must provide proof of citizenship when they register or have it
on file with the state. But because that cannot be required in presidential and
congressional elections, tens of thousands of voters who have not provided
proof of citizenship are registered only for federal elections.
An August order by a divided U.S. Supreme Court will allow voter registration
forms submitted without “documentary proof of citizenship” to be rejected by
Arizona counties while litigation over the law continues. People will be able to
register to vote in presidential and congressional elections using a different
federal form that requires people to swear they are citizens under penalty of
perjury, without requiring proof.
What’s on the ballot?
Republican-led legislatures in eight states have proposed constitutional
amendments on their November ballots declaring that only citizens can vote.
Proposals in Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and
Wisconsin would replace existing constitutional provisions stating that “every”
citizen or “all” citizens can vote with new wording saying “only” citizens can
vote. Supporters contend the current wording does not necessarily bar
noncitizens from voting.
In Idaho and Kentucky, the proposed amendments would explicitly state: “No
person who is not a citizen of the United States” can vote. Similar wording won
approval from Louisiana voters two years ago.
Voters in North Dakota, Colorado, Alabama, Florida and Ohio passed
amendments between 2018 and 2022 restricting voting to “only” citizens.
What else are states doing?
Although noncitizen voting already is prohibited in the state constitution,
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana is continuing to draw attention to the
issue. He recently signed an executive order requiring state agencies that
provide voter registration forms to include a written disclaimer that noncitizens
are prohibited from voting.
In Georgia, Raffensperger is requiring every polling place to post a sign in
English and Spanish warning noncitizens that it is illegal to vote.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas, citing “significant growth of
the noncitizen population” in the state, set up a special email account to report
suspected violations of election laws.
In Wisconsin, Republicans have filed a pair of similar lawsuits in recent weeks
that challenge the state’s process for verifying whether a registered voter is a
citizen. The lawsuits seek court orders requiring the elections commission to
perform checks to ensure there are no registered voters who are noncitizens.
North Carolina Republicans have sued the state election board, alleging it is not
enforcing a new law aimed at removing people from voter rolls who seek jury
duty exclusions because they are not citizens.
Tennessee’s top election office sent letters in June asking for proof of
citizenship from more than 14,000 registered voters, though those who failed
to respond won’t be barred from voting. The list was based on data from the
state Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which has information
about whether residents were U.S. citizens when they first interacted with that
department.
___
Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Ali Swenson
in New York contributed to this report.
DAVID A. LIEB
DAVID A. LIEB
Lieb covers issues and trends in state governments across the U.S. He’s
reported about government and politics for The Associated Press for 30 years.
twitter
mailto
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
[
National ] [ Main Menu ] |