Former President Donald Trump gave his full support Tuesday to British legislation that would require UK voters to show a photo ID in future elections — and called on all US states to follow suit.
“The Government of the United Kingdom is proposing that anyone who wants to vote in a British election should show photo ID to eliminate any corruption and fraud and ‘ensure the integrity of elections,'” Trump said in a statement emailed by his office. “This is exactly what we should do in the United States, unlike the Democrats who want to abolish Voter ID laws with passing their horrible HR 1 Bill.”
Queen Elizabeth II formally announced the voter ID proposal by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government earlier Tuesday in her annual Queen’s Speech, which outlines the government’s legislative priorities at the ceremonial start of the new parliamentary session. Johnson’s Conservative Party holds a massive 80-seat majority in the British House of Commons and could pass voter ID legislation without any help from the opposition parties.
If Johnson’s legislation passes, voters in England, Scotland and Wales will have to present photo ID at polling places beginning in 2023 (Northern Ireland has required photo ID since 2002). The proposal is stirring up controversy in Britain, with an opinion headline in the left-wing Guardian newspaper warning it would “dangerously undermine UK democracy.”
Trump’s statement came hours after a fiery Senate Rules Committee markup hearing on Democrats’ own massive federal election reform bill, the For the People Act (HR1). The legislation, which passed the House along party lines earlier this year, contains provisions weakening voter ID requirements and allowing voters to designate a person to turn in their ballots for them. Republicans say such measures amount to an invitation to commit voter fraud.
The hearing was punctuated by strong words from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), with the former accusing states like Georgia of using their own election laws to attempt “the greatest contraction of voting rights since the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow.”
McConnell criticized what he called “hysterical attacks” on laws like the one in Georgia, which he said had been “thoroughly debunked by fact-checkers.”
Trump has repeatedly insisted that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by Democrats, and has promoted voter ID as a bulwark against what he claims to be widespread electoral fraud.
“All States should pass Voter ID laws along with many other fair and comprehensive election reforms, like eliminating mass mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, so we never again have an election rigged and stolen from us,” the former president’s statement concluded. “The people are demanding real reform!”