A person places a mail-in ballot in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on October 15, 2024.
Hannah Baier | Getty Images
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday cracking down on mail-in voting.
“We want honest voting in our country,” Trump said in the Oval Office after signing the executive order. “Because if you want to know the truth, you can’t really have a nation without honest voting.”
The Daily Caller first reported that President Trump would sign the order.
According to the Daily Caller, the executive order requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to create a list of verified U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state. The Daily Caller, citing a White House fact sheet, reported that DHS will work with the Social Security Administration on this effort.
In that case, the U.S. Postal Service would be under the order to send mail-in ballots only to voters on the list, according to the Daily Caller. Election officials in each state typically ship mail-in ballots to voters, not the Postal Service.
President Trump has long called for restrictions on mail-in voting after losing the 2020 presidential election to former President Joe Biden. He has repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that the election was stolen through mail-in voting fraud.
The order comes after months of pressure on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to submit a photo ID and proof of U.S. citizenship to vote. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill in February, but the Senate considered it without a vote this month.
President Trump has told Republicans they will lose the November midterm elections unless they pass legislation and crack down on mail-in voting.
Voting rights advocates say President Trump’s planned voting restrictions will disenfranchise millions of Americans. The executive order is almost certain to be challenged in court, which could prevent it from being implemented in time for the midterm elections.
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