Trump Signs Order Changing Election Rules: What That Means For IL

ILLINOIS — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order overhauling U.S. elections, including requiring proof of citizenship to register and vote in federal elections. The move is almost certain to be challenged because the Constitution gives states broad authority over elections.

Trump’s order, which also requires that all ballots be received by Election Day, says the nation has “failed to enforce basic and necessary election protections.” It calls on states to work with federal agencies to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes, and threatens to pull federal funding from states where election officials don’t comply.

In Illinois, according to Vote.org, currently for voting in-person, if you've voted in the state before or provided ID when you registered, you do not need to show ID to vote.

Meanwhile, if you're voting in Illinois for the first time and didn't provide proof of ID when you registered, you'll need to show one of the following items when you vote in person during early voting or on Election Day:

• Current and valid photo ID
• Utility bill
• Bank statement
• Paycheck
• Government check
• Other government documentation indicating your name and address
• Student ID containing your photo along with i. a copy of your lease or ii. a postmarked piece of mail at your current residence

For voting by mail, if you've voted in Illinois before or provided ID at the time of registration, you don't need to provide ID to vote by mail. If you are a first-time voter and did not provide proof of ID at the time of registration (either with a driver's license, state ID, or social security number), you are not eligible to vote by mail and instead should vote in-person and provide proof of ID to the election official at the polling place.

In Illinois, early voting begins 40 days before the election and ends the day before Election Day.

For this year's April 1 consolidated election in Illinois, voting by mail is an option, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. All requests by mail must be received by the Election Authority by this Thursday. All in-person early voting requests must be made by next Monday.

Swift constitutional challenges are expected. Article I of the nation’s founding charter gives states, not the federal government, authority over the “times, places and manner” of how elections are run.

A new state law in New Hampshire requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register and vote recently prevented at least two people from having their say in town and school elections. Their experiences, recounted by town clerks, could prove instructive for the rest of the country as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act advances in Congress and more than a dozen states consider similar legislation.

“Everything that conservatives tried to downplay, New Hampshire told us exactly what would happen on a national scale under the SAVE Act,” Greta Bedekovics, a former policy adviser for Senate Democrats who is now with the Center for American Progress, told The Associated Press earlier this month.

Voting groups worry that women who have married and changed their names will encounter difficulty registering to vote because their birth certificates have their maiden names. In Derry, New Hampshire, Brooke Yonge, a 45-year-old hair stylist, was turned away from a school election because she didn’t have proof of citizenship and then again because the name on her birth certificate didn’t match her married name on her driver’s license. Yonge eventually had to show her marriage license.

The nearly two dozen states considering proof of citizenship voting laws are: Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.

In Illinois, Republican State Senator Steve McClure introduced a bill earlier this year aimed to restrict voter access. According to Voting Rights Lab, IL S 59 as introduced on Jan. 13, would require election officials to verify each voter registration applicant's citizenship by accessing a secure database established by the secretary of state that indicates whether each person to whom a driver's license or state ID card has been issued is a United States citizen. If the database indicates that the applicant is not a U.S. citizen, the official would be required to denote that the applicant may not vote without presenting proof of citizenship.

Trump has often claimed elections are being rigged, even before the results are known, and has waged battles against certain voting methods since he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump has focused particularly on mail voting, arguing without evidence that it’s insecure and invites fraud even as he has shifted his position on the issue given its popularity with voters, including Republicans.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.