President Trump signs an executive order on voter identification

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that would require prospective voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Voting rights advocates worry the new voter identification provisions could block millions of Americans from voting if enacted and say President Trump lacks the legal authority to make such changes.

Among the changes: The order calls for updating the federal form voters can use to register to vote to include a requirement that voters show proof of citizenship, like a passport, to a local or state official.

It also requires states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls, calls for states and federal agencies to share data to prosecute election crimes and grants federal agencies, including the head of the Department of Government Efficiency team, access to check state rolls “for consistency with federal requirements.”

It also directs federal agencies to share data with states, such as immigration and Social Security records, to facilitate states checking the eligibility of the names on their voter rolls. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said he will sue over the executive order and expects both Democratic and GOP secretaries of state to join him.

Jen Fifield, a reporter at VoteBeat joined us to discuss.

“We are unique in that we are one of the very few states that asks you to prove citizenship with documents to vote in state and local elections,” Fifield said.

Now, citizenship proof documents have to be included in all elections for Arizona citizens. There will also no longer be a “Federal Only” voting option on Arizona ballots.

Most Arizona counties are already following one of the new rules, which is that all ballots need to be on paper. In some counties and in rural areas, people can vote on a screen, and their ballot is printed with their preferences encoded in a barcode or QR code.

“Congress has given states the power to decide the place and manner of their own elections and so we manage our voter rules and we pick our voting machines in all different ways,” Fifield said.

She said that this is an attempt for the government to federalize elections. Fifield said that the goal of the order is to secure U.S. citizens’ votes.