A Gallup survey found that Americans are in favor of President Trump’s executive order on election integrity, but a federal court in Washington, D.C., barred its implementation.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly knocked down parts of the order that made it necessary to provide evidence of citizenship in order to register to vote.
A whopping 84% of American adults were in favor of making voters show identity and 83% were in favor of needing evidence of citizenship when registering for the first time, according to a Gallup poll conducted only two weeks before the 2024 election.
Among Republicans, 98% were in support of requiring voter ID, while 67% were Democrats and 84% were Independents. Similarly, when asked about the need for evidence of citizenship, 96% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 66% of Democrats were in favor.
But according to Kollar-Kotelly, Trump lacks the power to make such an order since the Constitution gives Congress and the states responsibility over election rules.
“Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would affect many of the changes the President purports to order,” said Clinton appointee Kollar-Kotelly in her order. “No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”
With the passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act earlier this month, states would be compelled to request evidence of citizenship from anyone registering to vote in federal elections. The statute also requires the removal of all non-citizens from voter registration lists. Prior to reaching Trump’s desk, the proposal must still be passed by the Senate.
A Republican from Texas, Rep. Chip Roy said that the right to vote in American elections is essential to the survival of the republic. Passage of the SAVE Act by my colleagues is much-appreciated; it’s a necessary first step in preserving the honesty of our voting processes nationwide.
According to Voting Rights Lab, five states have already implemented voter ID restrictions in 2025, with one state going as far as to require evidence of citizenship in order to register to vote. On top of that, forty states are contemplating measures to require voter ID, and twenty-five are thinking about initiatives that would require evidence of citizenship.
