Austin, Texas (AP) – President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have prioritized this year to require people to prove citizenship before they can register to vote. Turning this aspiration into reality turned out to be difficult.
Trump’s executive order, a directing documentary, a requirement for evidence of citizenship for federal elections is blocked by a judge, while federal legislation on its achievement does not seem to have votes to go to the Senate. At the same time, the state level efforts have found little success, even in places where Republicans control the legislature and the governor.
The most state efforts to break up in Texas, where a Senate bill failed to obtain full legislative approval before the legislators delayed Monday. The Texas Bill was one of the fastest proof proposals for citizenship in the country, as it would apply not only to new registrants but also to approximately 18.6 million registered voters of the state.
“The authors of the bill failed to explain how this bill would be implemented and how it would be implemented without causing a discomfort to tonnes of voters,” said Anthony Gutierrez, director of the voting rights group, a common cause of Texas.
The voting of non -citizens is already illegal and punishable as a crime that potentially leads to deportation, but Trump and his allies pressed a mandate for evidence of citizenship, claiming to improve public confidence in elections.
Prior to his victory last year, Trump is falsely claimed that the non -iconic could vote in large enough numbers to swing the result. Although voting for an unquited vote, states and examinations of state cases show that it is rare and more often a mistake.
Voting rights groups say that various proposals that seek to demand proof of citizenship are too burdensome and threaten to defuse millions of Americans. Many do not have easy access to their birth certificates, have not received an American passport or have a name that no longer coincides with that of their birth certificate – like women who have changed their surname when they married.
The number of countries that are considering bills related to evidence of voting citizenship has tripled from 2023 to this year, said Liz Avore, a senior policy adviser in the voting rights, an advocacy group that monitors elective laws in the countries.
This has not led to many new laws, at least so far. The Republicans in Wyoming have adopted their own legislation on evidence of citizenship, but such measures have stagnated or failed in many countries led by GOP, including Florida, Missouri, Texas and Utah. The proposal remains active in Ohio, although governor Mike Deyne, a Republican, said he did not want to sign more bills that made it difficult to vote.
In Texas, the legislation quickly adopted the state senate after being introduced in March, but never reached a vote on the floor in the House. It was not clear why the legislation, which was such a priority for the Republicans in the Senate-all of them, co-authored the bill, in the end, fell apart.
“I just think people have realized, since this book was in other states, Texas should not have made this mistake,” said reporter John Bussey, a Democrat, who is the Vice -President of the Chamber of Election Committee.
Busie pointed out specific concerns about married women who changed their last name. This emerged in local elections earlier this year in New Hampshire, which was required to proof of citizenship last year.
Other countries that have previously strive to add such a requirement are facing lawsuits and complications when trying to apply it.
In Arizona, a state audit found that the problems with the way the data was processed had influenced the tracking and verifying the state of citizenship of the residents. He came after employees identified about 200,000 voters who were thought to have provided proof of their citizenship but did not.
The requirement for evidence of citizenship has been in force for three years in Kansas before being overturned by the federal courts. The country’s own expert estimated that almost all approximately 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote while in reality are US citizens who otherwise meet the conditions.
In Missouri, the legislation, which wants to add a requirement for evidence of citizens, cleared the Senate Committee, but never came to a vote in the Republican Chamber.
Republican state senator Ben Brown has encouraged legislation as a continuation of a constitutional amendment stating that only US citizens can vote, which Missouri voters have predominantly approved last November. He said there are several factors that have led to the fact that the bill is not progressing this year. Due to the limited schedule of the session, he chose to prioritize another election bill prohibiting foreign contributions to state voting measuring measures.
“Our legislative session, ending in mid -May, means that many things die in the final because you have just run out of time,” Brown said, noting that he also took the time to explore fears raised by local election officials and plans to re -introduce the evidence of evidence of citizenship next year.
The Republican Legislative Body on Utah also prioritizes other election changes, adding requirements for voter identification and requires people to refuse to receive their newsletters by mail. Before governor Spencer Cox signed the bill in the law, Utah was the only Republican controlled state that allowed all elections to be held by mail without having to join.
According to Florida’s bill, which has not been able to advance, applications for voter registration will not be considered valid until civil servants have checked the citizenship, or by confirming the previous vote history by verifying the status of the applicant in the state and federal databases, or checking the documents they have provided.
The bill would require voters to prove their citizenship, even when updating their registration to change their address or party affiliation.
His sponsor, the Republican state reputation, Jenna-Mulika, said he was intended to follow Trump’s executive order: “This bill fully corresponds to the president’s call,” she said.
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Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press Writers Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming; David A. Leib in Jefferson City, Missouri; Kate Payne in Talahasi, Florida; Hanna Schönbaum in Salt Lake City; Julie Car Smith in Columbus, Ohio; And Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, have contributed to this report.