He seeks to strengthen oversight of voter eligibility ahead of midterm elections.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order limiting mail-in voting in federal elections.
The decision was justified as part of his campaign to reinforce his claims about possible electoral fraud in the midterm elections to be held in November.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin will be required to develop a registry of eligible voters in collaboration with the Social Security Administration. This registry will later be used to monitor who can receive ballots sent by mail.
“We are going to take federal data and make sure that election officials in every state have a complete view of who the eligible voters are in their jurisdiction,” Trump said during the signing of the document at the White House.
The Republican leader has questioned remote voting since the 2020 election, in which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Without presenting any evidence, he has also maintained that voting in the United States is susceptible to fraud.
His statements about the 2020 presidential election prompted episodes of violence, the most notable being the assault on the Capitol in January 2021.
Currently, the Trump administration is seeking approval of a law that would require voters to present identification as “proof of citizenship” in elections, even though 36 of the 50 states already require identification.
The decision of the Republican leader, who acknowledged in the past that he himself has used the mail-in voting system, caused immediate reactions among citizens concerned about the deterioration of the U.S. democracy.
“This is another illegal and unconstitutional power grab from President Trump to try and decide who gets to vote in this country. He wants to build a national voter list that he controls, make it harder for Americans to cast their ballot, and ban mail voting outright while he himself just voted by mail.
Seniors, veterans, rural communities, millions of Americans depend on this access, and we are not going to let him take it away right before the midterms. We will fight this in Congress and with our partners in the courts to protect the right to vote for all,” Oversight Dems posted on X.
“Some may freak out about this, but honestly, this is hilarious. It’s clearly unconstitutional, will be blocked immediately, and the only thing it will accomplish is to make liberal lawyers wealthier. He might as well sign an EO banning gravity,” said David Becker, director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research.
[ SOURCE: teleSUR ]
