Election experts tonight are sounding the alarm Tuesday evening about President Donald Trump’s executive order on election rules, with one calling it “an illegal power grab that would block tens of millions from voting.”
Wendy Weiser, the vice president for democracy at the nonprofit Brennan Center, took issue with ID requirements to register to vote laid out in the order, as well as threats to revoke funding from states that don’t comply.
Sam Tarazi, the co-founder of the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, said the order was sure to face legal challenges in court. “President Trump’s executive order is more than a direct affront to our Constitution and the checks and balances that have secured our elections for generations,” he said.
Among other statements, the order claims the U.S. “has not adequately enforced Federal election requirements that…prohibit non-citizens from registering to vote.”
But recent audits — including in Republican states — have shown that noncitizen voting is extremely rare.
In Georgia, for example, an audit of the state’s voter rolls last year found just 20 noncitizens out of 8 million registered voters. A similar audit of Iowa’s 2.3 million voters revealed 87 instances where individuals cast ballots and later self-reported as noncitizens.
Some election officials are praising Trump’s move. That includes Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who once feuded with Trump over false claims of election fraud.
“Thank you, President Trump, for this executive order ensuring that only American citizens decide American elections,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “This is a great first step for election integrity reform nationwide.”
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim and Olivia Rubin
