AUSTIN, TX – President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have made it a priority this year to require people to prove citizenship before they can register to vote. Turning that aspiration into reality has proved difficult.
TrumpβsΒ executive orderΒ directing a documentary,Β proof-of-citizenship requirementΒ for federal elections has beenΒ blockedΒ by a judge, whileΒ federal legislationΒ to accomplish it doesnβt appear to have the votes to pass in the Senate. At the same time, state-level efforts have found little success, even in places where Republicans control the legislature and governor’s office.
The most recent state effort to falter is in Texas, where a Senate bill failed to gain full legislative approval before lawmakers adjourned on Monday. The Texas bill was one of the nationβs most sweeping proof-of-citizenship proposals because it would have applied not only to new registrants but also to the stateβs roughly 18.6 million registered voters.
βThe bill authors failed spectacularly to explain how this bill would be implemented and how it would be able to be implemented without inconveniencing a ton of voters,β said Anthony Gutierrez, director of the voting rights group Common Cause Texas.
Voting by noncitizens is already illegal and punishable as a felony, potentially leading to deportation, but Trump and his allies have pressed for aΒ proof-of-citizenship mandateΒ by arguing it would improve public confidence in elections.
Before his win last year, TrumpΒ falsely claimedΒ noncitizensΒ might voteΒ in large enough numbers toΒ sway the outcome. Although noncitizen voting does occur, research andΒ reviews of state casesΒ has shown itΒ to be rareΒ and more often a mistake.
Voting rights groups say the various proposals seeking to require proof-of-citizenship areΒ overly burdensomeΒ and threaten to disenfranchise millions of Americans. Many do not have easy access to their birth certificates, have not gotten a U.S. passport or have a name that no longer matches the one on their birth certificate β such as women who changed their last name when they married.
The number of states considering bills related to proof of citizenship for voting tripled from 2023 to this year, said Liz Avore, senior policy adviser with the Voting Rights Lab, an advocacy group that tracks election legislation in the states.
That hasnβt resulted in many new laws, at least so far. Republicans in Wyoming passed their own proof-of-citizenship legislation, but similar measures have stalled or failed in multiple GOP-led states, including Florida, Missouri, Texas and Utah. A proposal remains active in Ohio, although Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has said he doesnβt want to sign any more bills that make it harder to vote.
In Texas, the legislation swiftly passed the state Senate after it was introduced in March but never made it to a floor vote in the House. It was unclear why legislation that was such a priority for Senate Republicans β every one of them co-authored the bill — ended up faltering.
βI just think people realized, as flawed as this playbook has been in other states, Texas didnβt need to make this mistake,β said Rep. John Bucy, a Democrat who serves as vice chair of the House elections committee.
Bucy pointed to specific concerns about married women who changed their last name. This surfaced in local elections earlier this yearΒ in New Hampshire, which passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement last year.
Other states that previously sought to add such a requirement have faced lawsuits and complications when trying to implement it.
In Arizona, a state audit found that problems with the way data was handled had affected the tracking and verification of residents’ citizenship status. It came after officials had identifiedΒ some 200,000 votersΒ who were thought to have provided proof of their citizenship but had not.
A proof-of-citizenship requirement was in effect for three yearsΒ in KansasΒ before it was overturned by federal courts. The stateβs own expert estimated that almost all of the roughly 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote while it was in effect were U.S. citizens who otherwise had been eligible.
In Missouri, legislation seeking to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement cleared a Senate committee but never came to a vote in the Republican-led chamber.
Republican state Sen. Ben Brown had promoted the legislation as a follow-up to a constitutional amendment stating that only U.S. citizens can vote, which Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved last November. He said there were several factors that led to the bill not advancing this year. Due to the sessionβs limited schedule, he chose to prioritize another elections bill banning foreign contributions in state ballot measure campaigns.
βOur legislative session ending mid-May means a lot of things die at the finish line because you simply run out of time,β Brown said, noting he also took time to research concerns raised by local election officials and plans to reintroduce the proof-of-citizenship bill next year.
The Republican-controlled Legislature in Utah also prioritized other election changes, adding voter ID requirements and requiring people toΒ opt in to receiveΒ their ballots in the mail. Before Gov. Spencer Cox signed the bill into law, Utah was the only Republican-controlled state that allowed all elections to be conducted by mail without a need to opt in.
Under the Florida bill that has failed to advance, voter registration applications wouldnβt be considered valid until state officials had verified citizenship, either by confirming a previous voting history, checking the applicant’s status in state and federal databases, or verifying documents they provided.
The bill would have required voters to prove their citizenship even when updating their registration to change their address or party affiliation.
Its sponsor, Republican state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, said it was meant to follow through on Trumpβs executive order: βThis bill fully answers the presidentβs call,β she said.
