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President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he intends to issue an executive order creating nationwide voting standards focused on preventing fraud, with voter identification as the main requirement.
The president also said the order would mandate paper ballots and restrict mail-in voting to military members serving overseas and individuals too ill to vote in person.
“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!” Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social.
He added, “Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!!! President DJT.”
The proposed order will likely face legal challenges. Historically, while both federal and local governments share certain powers over elections, states ultimately control their own voting systems. That precedent makes it possible the executive order could be overturned.
Still, Trump’s intent may not be to reshape the entire election system with one order, but rather to spotlight the issue and pressure Congress and individual states to take legislative action.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has said several of Trump’s previous executive orders were later codified into law, citing examples like defunding public media, cutting government waste, boosting domestic oil production, and creating a missile defense shield.
Republicans in Congress could take a similar path with election reform, banking on support from the Supreme Court. Trump’s move may also push state-level GOP leaders to pursue similar measures in swing states.
In states where voters can directly approve changes, momentum already exists. In April, Wisconsin voters passed a constitutional amendment requiring voter ID with nearly 63 percent support.
Support for voter ID remains strong nationwide. A Pew Research poll from August found that 95 percent of Republicans and 71 percent of Democrats support requiring government-issued photo identification to vote.
Restricting mail-in voting is also seen by Trump and his supporters as a way to minimize fraud by tightening the chain of custody, while still allowing military members and the seriously ill to vote absentee.
Trump is framing this as a commonsense approach, noting that Americans already must show identification for many daily activities such as driving, traveling, cashing checks, or renting a car.
By championing voter ID, Trump is once again aligning himself with a popular issue, while putting Democrats in a position where opposing it could be politically damaging.
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