I was halfway through my General Tso’s fried tofu when Donald Trump signed an executive order that could upend the way millions of Americans vote. While most of us were winding down for the evening, Trump was busy signing a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s voting system — and it’s got some serious implications.
Here’s what you need to know.
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The executive mandates that anyone registering to vote in federal elections must provide documentary proof of citizenship. Think passport, birth certificate, or naturalization documents — items that, according to a 2023 Brennan Center for Justice report, an estimated 21.3 million voting-age U.S. citizens simply don’t have readily available. That’s about 9% of eligible voters.
The executive order also requires that all ballots be received by Election Day — not just postmarked, but physically in the hands of election officials. That change could disqualify countless mail-in ballots, especially from military voters, rural communities, and anyone relying on a strained postal system.
Trump’s order doesn’t stop there. It accuses the country of failing to enforce “basic and necessary election protections,” and calls on states to share voter lists with federal agencies and prosecute election crimes more aggressively. It even threatens to pull federal funding from states that don’t play ball.
Voting rights groups are already raising red flags. They say this could disenfranchise marginalized communities, including elderly voters, people with lower incomes, and women who’ve changed their names after marriage. Imagine trying to register to vote only to be told your birth certificate doesn’t match your current ID because it still has your maiden name.
This isn’t just a bureaucratic shake-up. It’s a fundamental shift in how access to the ballot is defined in America — and it’s happening fast.
Whether or not this executive order holds up to legal scrutiny, one thing’s clear: the battle over voting rights isn’t over. And for millions of Americans, the right to vote just became a lot harder to exercise.
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