Judge Bars Trump’s Election Integrity Executive Order

An unelected inferior court judge claimed it’s too risky to ask voters to prove they’re citizens in order to register to vote, days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Haitian national for allegedly illegally voting.

According to a post on X, on Wednesday “HSI Miami arrested a Haitian national charged with unlawful voting and casting a false ballot.” The alien “had previously been convicted of narcotics trafficking and weapons violation and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment,” according to HSI Miami.

While noncitizen voting is illegal, the current law is largely toothless. That’s why President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March to secure elections. One provision of the executive order would require documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.

But on Friday, District Judge Denise Casper, an Obama appointee, ruled that while “there is no dispute (nor could there be) that U.S. citizenship is required to vote in federal elections,” “the federal voter registration forms require attestation of citizenship.”

But that’s the problem, that’s all the form requires.

All a prospective voter has to do is check a small square box on the federal voter registration form attesting under penalty of perjury that he is telling the truth about his citizenship status. It’s the honor system. Trump’s order would require voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register.

The system is vulnerable — as evidenced by the arrest of the Haitian national — yet Casper ruled that there is “substantial risk” that “citizens will be disenfranchised” by having to prove they are citizens in order to register to vote.

“The States have also credibly attested that the challenged requirements could create chaos and confusion that could result in voters losing trust in the election process,” Casper ruled, clearly disregarding the fact that the current honor system does result in voters losing trust in the security of elections.

But Casper’s ruling only underscores the need for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. Shortly before her ruling, a Haitian national became the latest individual in a string of examples of noncitizens voting — all made possible by a vulnerable system. But that’s precisely why the House passed the SAVE Act in April, which would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act to make documentary proof of citizenship a requirement to register to vote, as The Federalist previously reported. That means the proof of citizenship provision in Trump’s executive order wouldn’t even be necessary.

Even if Casper’s ruling survives an appeal, Congress has the authority to fix the problem by amending the National Voter Registration Act to protect election integrity at the federal level. The House did its part — now it’s up to the Senate.