Donald Trump has been insisting since 2020 that his defeat was the result of fraud. On Tuesday, Trump signed a sweeping executive order that addresses his concerns about the fairness of American elections.
The order calls for the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an independent agency with four commissioners named by the president, to require potential voters to show proof of citizenship before they can register to vote in federal elections. The order also directs state or local officials to verify the information.
The constitutionality of this order is in serious question. Voting procedures are clearly the responsibility of individual states, and Trump doesn’t have the authority to dictate how states run their elections. Further, the EAC is an independent agency, supposedly immune to executive direction.
The courts will, no doubt, sort out the issues and rule on the legality of the order.
“This executive order is important for what it tries to do on requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote, but it is even more important for what it means for Presidential power,” Rick Hasen, a political science professor and…
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