Trump in Trouble! Plan to Control Voters Fails in Court and States!

President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have made it a priority this year to require proof of citizenship for voter registration. However, turning this goal into law has proven challenging, facing setbacks in federal courts and state legislatures.F

Trump’s executive order mandating documentary proof of citizenship for federal elections was recently blocked by a judge. Furthermore, federal legislation aimed at achieving this requirement appears unlikely to pass in the Senate. Simultaneously, similar efforts at the state level have encountered limited success, even in states where Republicans control both the legislature and the governor’s office.

The most recent setback occurred in Texas, where a Senate bill that would have been one of the nation’s most extensive proof-of-citizenship proposals failed to secure full legislative approval before lawmakers adjourned on Monday. This bill would have applied not only to new voter registrants but also to the state’s approximately 18.6 million existing registered voters. Opponents of the bill argued that its authors failed to adequately explain how it could be implemented without causing significant inconvenience to a large number of voters.

While voting by noncitizens is already illegal and considered a felony, potentially leading to deportation, Trump and his allies have argued that requiring proof of citizenship would enhance public trust in elections. Despite Trump’s past false claims about widespread noncitizen voting influencing election outcomes, research and reviews of state-level cases have consistently shown such instances to be rare and often accidental.

Voting rights groups have raised concerns that the various proposals to mandate proof of citizenship are overly burdensome and risk disenfranchising millions of legitimate American voters. Many citizens, they argue, may not have easy access to their birth certificates, may not possess a U.S. passport, or may have names that no longer match their birth certificates due to marriage or other legal changes. The issue of married women with changed names has been a particular point of concern.

Data from the Voting Rights Lab indicates a significant increase in the number of states considering bills related to proof of citizenship for voting this year compared to 2023. However, this surge in proposals has not yet translated into many new laws. While Wyoming’s Republican legislature passed its own proof-of-citizenship legislation, similar measures have stalled or failed in several other GOP-led states, including Florida, Missouri, Texas, and Utah. A proposal remains active in Ohio, although Republican Governor Mike DeWine has stated his reluctance to sign any further bills that make voting more difficult.

In Texas, the stalled legislation had quickly passed the state Senate but never reached a vote in the House. The reasons for its failure in the House, despite strong support from Senate Republicans, remain somewhat unclear. A Democratic representative suggested that lawmakers may have recognized the flaws in this approach, which have been evident in other states. Concerns specifically arose regarding married women whose last names differ from their birth certificates, an issue that surfaced in New Hampshire following the implementation of their proof-of-citizenship requirement.

Experiences in other states that have attempted to implement such requirements have also been marked by legal challenges and implementation complications. For instance, an audit in Arizona revealed issues with the handling and verification of citizenship data. Kansas’s proof-of-citizenship requirement was in effect for three years before being overturned by federal courts, with the state’s own expert estimating that almost all of the approximately 30,000 people prevented from registering were indeed U.S. citizens. In Missouri, similar legislation passed a Senate committee but did not receive a vote in the full Republican-controlled chamber, partly due to time constraints and prioritization of other election-related bills.

In Utah, the Republican-controlled legislature focused on other election reforms, such as adding voter ID requirements and requiring voters to opt-in to receive mail-in ballots. Florida’s failed bill would have mandated citizenship verification before voter registration applications were considered valid, even for updates related to address or party affiliation changes. The bill’s sponsor stated it was intended to align with President Trump’s executive order on the matter.