President Donald Trump says he plans to sign an executive order that would require voter ID in elections across the country.
Trump announced the plan late Saturday on social media, saying he also wants other changes to the way U.S. elections are run.
“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!! Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Earlier this year, Trump tried to use an executive order to require voter ID as part of a broader election integrity effort. But in April, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down parts of that order that focused on voter identification.
Kollar-Kotelly said Trump did not have the authority to issue such an order because the Constitution gives control of election rules to Congress and the states.
“Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would affect many of the changes the President purports to order,” Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, wrote in her ruling. “No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”
Still, polls show that requiring proof of citizenship and voter ID remains very popular among Americans. A Gallup poll taken just before the 2024 elections found that 84% of U.S. adults supported requiring voters to show ID, and 83% supported requiring proof of citizenship for first-time registration.
When broken down by party, 67% of Democrats, 84% of Independents, and 98% of Republicans supported voter ID. The numbers for proof of citizenship were nearly the same, with 66% of Democrats, 84% of Independents, and 96% of Republicans in favor.
