A federal judge blocked portions of a Trump administration order Friday that would have required voters to show proof of citizenship at the voting booth.
In a 44-page memorandum, U.S. District Judge Denise Casper ordered that adding layers of difficulty to the voting process would only harm eligible voters by adding significant barriers before they can cast their ballots.
Casper further noted that Donald Trump’s order was an executive overreach and that the authority to set new election requirements rests with Congress.
“There is no dispute (nor could there be) that U.S. citizenship is required to vote in federal elections and the federal voter registration forms require attestation of citizenship,” Casper wrote. “The issue here is whether the president can require documentary proof of citizenship where the authority for election requirements is in the hands of Congress, its statutes … do not require it, and the statutorily created [Election Assistance Commission] is required to go through a notice and comment period and consult with the states before implementing any changes to the federal forms for voter registration.”
One of five provisions in the executive order blocked by Casper mandated that the Election Assistance Commission collect and record information on provided documentary proof of citizenship in the national voter registration form. Casper’s ruling also intervened in a White House decree that ordered the secretary of defense to update the absentee application for overseas voters or Americans in the military, which under Trump’s direction would have required such voters to provide proof of citizenship as well as proof of eligibility to vote in their respective states.
“Neither the Constitution nor any statute grants the president the authority to enact” such an order, the judge wrote.
Since Trump lost the 2020 election, he and his allies have obsessed over contrived claims of voter fraud—a statistical nonissue in U.S. elections. For instance, a statewide audit out of Georgia, the epicenter of Trump’s baseless theory, revealed in September that just 20 noncitizens out of 8.2 million residents existed on the state’s voter roll. Out of those 20, only nine participated in elections, years ago, before ID was required as a part of the voter verification process. The other 11 individuals were registered but never actually voted, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Critics argue that restrictions on the front end of the electoral process—such as one-day voting and requiring day-of voter ID, which Trump pledged to apply in December—would minimize voter turnout and limit the democracy’s ability to represent its constituents. This would especially be true in high-density areas like the nation’s biggest cities, where those stipulations would significantly drain resources (i.e., boost the number of volunteers required) and require more time to process, potentially leading to delays.
Trump’s continued focus on the nativist nonissue belies the fact that it is, of course, already illegal and impossible for noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections, including in Georgia, where the individuals who fell through the cracks in the system accounted for just 0.00024 percent of the state’s voting population.
Meanwhile, Trump has said nothing about campaign finance reform, an electoral issue that has, over the last few decades, increasingly placed politicians in the pockets of major corporations and billionaire donors. Instead, the president’s allies have actually lobbied him to loosen campaign finance laws, raise limits on campaign contributions, and oppose Federal Election Commission reforms that would help the agency enforce the laws regarding the country’s elections.