Washington:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order seeking broad changes to elections in the US, including mandating voters to show proof that they are American citizens, counting only mail or absentee ballots received by Election Day and prohibiting non-US citizens from being able to donate in certain elections.
Citing India and some other countries, the order said the US, despite “pioneering self-government”, now fails to enforce “basic and necessary election protections” employed by modern, developed and developing nations.
“India and Brazil, for example, are tying voter identification to a biometric database, while the United States largely relies on self-attestation for citizenship,” it said.
“Germany and Canada require paper ballots when tabulating votes, while the United States has a patchwork of methods that often lack basic chain-of-custody protections,” it added.
The order also stated that while countries like Denmark and Sweden “sensibly” limit mail-in voting to those unable to vote in person and do not count late-arriving votes regardless of the date of postmark, many American elections now feature mass voting by mail, with many officials accepting ballots without postmarks or those received well after Election Day.
President Trump, who returned to power in January after defeating Democrat nominee Kamala Harris, said that “free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic”.
“The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election,” he said.