President Donald Trump said Saturday he would sign an Executive Order requiring voter identification for all U.S. elections, a move that will likely be challenged in court as unconstitutional.
“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End,” Trump said on Truth Social.
The president also reiterated his intention to ban voting by mail in all cases except for people who were very ill or “Far Away Military.”
The sweeping reform plans are based on Trump’s persistent claim that voter fraud is a widespread problem in the country that cost him the 2020 election—a claim that he presented no evidence for in the years since, and which numerous investigations by his own administration have also failed to bring charges for.
Read More: Trump Says Only the U.S. Votes by Mail. Here Are the Facts
Voter identification laws currently differ in each state, but many Republican states have made their laws stricter in recent years in response to Trump’s repeated false claims of fraud. As of 2025, 36 states require identification from voters at the polls.
Still, states vary in their strictness. Some require photo identification, and some have exceptions for low-income voters, those who have religious beliefs against being photographed, or those who are victims of domestic abuse and require confidentiality.
Election laws are set by state legislatures, and are then governed by a combination of the governor, the attorney general, the chief election official and the state board of elections.
The Constitution does not give the president the power to regulate elections, and previous attempts by Trump to change election rules have been blocked.
Opponents of voter ID laws point to research that shows they disproportionately impact people of color, the elderly and student voters. Citizens of color are almost four times more likely not to have a current government-issued photo ID compared to white citizens, according to a study by nonprofit Voteriders. The same study found that some 34.5 million Americans either do not have a driver’s license or state ID, or have one that does not have their current name or address on it, and are dissuaded from fixing problems with their ID by economic barriers, bureaucratic barriers, and just general confusion over voting requirements.
Trump’s announcement follows a March 2025 executive order that directed the Election Assistance Commission to require Americans to present a passport or another government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote.
That order was based on another false claim that the U.S. was allowing foreign nationals to vote in elections, and called on election officials to “enforce the Federal prohibition on foreign nationals voting in Federal elections.”
Soon after Trump’s executive order announcement, 19 states sued Trump, citing it as “an unconstitutional attempt to seize control of elections.” Several judges have since found most of the executive order unconstitutional, providing a preview of the legal battles ahead for Trump’s plans on voter identification requirements.
One judge, U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper, issued a preliminary injunction on the order in June. She said that the order “violates the Constitution” and “interferes with States’ inherent sovereignty and their constitutional power to regulate the time, place, and manner of federal elections.”
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