President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order seeking broad changes to elections in the US and made documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections mandatory.
Citing India and some other countries, the order said the US, despite “pioneering self-government”, now fails to enforce “basic and necessary election protections” employed by modern, developed nations, as well as those still developing.
“India and Brazil, for example, are tying voter identification to a biometric database, while the United States largely relies on self-attestation for citizenship,” it said.
“Germany and Canada require paper ballots when tabulating votes, while the United States has a patchwork of methods that often lack basic chain-of-custody protections,” it added.
The order also stated that while countries like Denmark and Sweden “sensibly” limit mail-in voting to those unable to vote in person and do not count late-arriving votes regardless of the date of postmark, many American elections now feature mass voting by mail, with many officials accepting ballots without postmarks or those received well after Election Day.
In a statement, the White House said that President Trump recognizes that “free, fair, and honest elections – unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion – are essential to our Constitutional Republic”.
“We’re going to fix our elections so that our elections are going to be honorable and honest and people leave and they know their vote is counted. We are going to have free and fair elections. And ideally, we go to paper ballots, same-day voting, proof of citizenship, very big, and voter ID, very simple,” the White House quoted President Trump as saying.
“We will secure our elections, and they will be secure once and for all,” he added.