The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed a decree on Tuesday with the aim of tightening the rules for voting by mail across the country, ordering his government to create a list of confirmed US citizens eligible to vote in each state.
The order would also require that absentee ballots be sent only to voters who appear on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list and would require secure ballot envelopes with unique tracking barcodes.
Any move to force changes to state-run election systems will likely face immediate legal challenges.
For years, the Republican president has maintained his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud and has called for a tightening of rules for voting by mail ahead of November’s midterm elections, when his party will try to defend its narrow majorities in Congress.
His vocal opposition to voting by mail did not stop Trump from voting that way in a special election in Florida last week. Asked about this, he said he voted by mail recently “because I’m president” and “I had a lot of different things” to do.
Previously, he used an executive order to direct federal agencies to help states verify voters’ citizenship and attempted to block states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day, a direct challenge to election procedures traditionally set by states.
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