Reuters reported that on March 25, US President Donald Trump signed an executive decree requiring voters to prove that they are US citizens when participating in elections, while trying to prevent states from recognizing votes by mail-in after Election Day.
Trump has long questioned the US election system and continued to say that his defeat to former Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020 was due to widespread fraud.
He and his Republican allies also accused many non-American citizens of voting - which is illegal and rare.
There was a bill that banned non-US citizens from registering to vote in federal elections passed in the House of Representatives during Republican control last year. However, the final bill still won't pass the Senate as the agency is under the control of the Democrats.
The new decree from the White House aims to achieve similar goals. Voting rights groups say the measure is similar to the recently violated US Voter Protection of privacy Act. According to the law, communities that lack access to passports or necessary identification documents will be deprived of voting rights.
Mr. Trump pledged to clean up and fix elections when signing the decree at the White House in the context of what he said that "fake elections" are causing the United States to decline. However, this decree may face many legal challenges.
Ms. Lisa Gilbert, co-chair of the Public Citizen movement, said that this move is seen as a form of direct attack on democracy and a way of concentrating too much power.
Public Citizen said that about 146 million Americans do not have passports, while research from the Brennan Center shows that about 21.3 million US citizens are eligible to vote but do not have documents to prove their citizenship in case of urgency.
The White House later argued that President Trump's decree would prevent foreign interference in the US election. However, voters only need to answer questions about their nationality in the federal election registration form in the new regulation - which has never been applied.
The decree also criticizes the policy of allowing mail-in ballots after Election Day to still be counted in the context that many states still recognize mail-in ballots and have a postmark before the results date. At Trump's request, all votes must be cast and received before Election Day as prescribed by law.
