President Donald Trump has declared his intention to sign an executive order that would make voter identification mandatory for every ballot cast in the United States, a move likely to ignite fresh debate over election access and integrity.
President Donald Trump has declared his intention to sign an executive order that would make voter identification mandatory for every ballot cast in the United States, a move likely to ignite fresh debate over election access and integrity.
Writing on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump declared: “Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!” He added that mail-in voting should be barred, except for members of the armed forces stationed overseas and for voters with serious medical conditions.
The announcement fits within a broader effort by the president and his allies to reshape the US electoral system. Since his loss to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump has repeatedly claimed—without evidence—that the election was tainted by widespread fraud. He has also alleged that non-citizens are casting ballots illegally, an assertion studies have consistently found to be exceedingly rare.
Trump has for years championed the elimination of electronic voting machines, favouring paper ballots and hand counts instead. Election officials across party lines warn such methods are slower, more costly and less reliable than machine tabulation.
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Earlier this year, Trump issued a sweeping order that required proof of citizenship in federal elections and mandated that ballots arrive by Election Day. A federal judge blocked key provisions in April, ruling that the Constitution entrusts states and Congress—not the White House—with authority over election rules.
Even so, Trump has promised additional executive actions, including a ban on mail-in ballots and electronic voting, to be enforced before the 2026 midterm elections. Those polls, scheduled for November 3, will mark the first national test of Trump’s renewed presidency and a critical contest for Democrats seeking to loosen Republican control of Congress.
The coming legal challenges to any new order could determine how far a president can go in unilaterally reshaping the mechanics of American democracy.