What did Trump say about India’s voting system? | Explained

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President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, that India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had asked his administration how elections are held in the U.S. without a valid photo identity card.

He also pointed out that just 1% of India’s 64.64 crore electors who voted in the last general elections voted by mail (unlike the large number who do so in the U.S.) Mr. Trump reiterated his demand that Congress pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and a photo ID to cast a ballot, among other restrictions.

Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution (the Elections Clause) empowers the State legislatures to determine the “times, places, and manner” of federal elections, even as it allows Congress to alter or make such regulations. There is no national election authority like the Election Commission of India. There is the Federal Election Commission, but it is only empowered to regulate campaign finance as registration, balloting, and counting are done by the States’ county and municipal jurisdictions. This is due to the strongly federal nature of the U.S., unlike India’s quasi-federal system.

The U.S. Congress also passed the National Voter Registration Act, 1993, which required States to offer voter registration at motor vehicle and public assistance offices, and the Help America Vote Act, 2002, which provided funding for States to buy new voting machines and called for State-wide elector databases.

Voter eligibility in the U.S. is therefore a State concern, and registration is elector-initiated. While documentary proof of citizenship is not demanded, a potential elector has to affirm citizenship under penalty of perjury on the registration form. Thirty-six States ask for some form of identification at the polling place and 23 ask for a photo ID.

This is unlike India, where electoral rolls are compiled in each State via house-to-house enumeration conducted by the ECI, which has superintendence over the whole process of registration. Eligible electors are then issued the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), though other documents, including Aadhaar, can be used as identification at the booth as well.

Independent studies have found that almost all non-citizen registrations in the U.S. are accidental and only a small proportion of them votes. The Trump administration’s claims have not survived scrutiny. The New York Times reported that after announcing in July that it had identified 2,78,000 non-citizens on the rolls of four States, including 15,903 in Nevada, the Department of Homeland Security told Nevada’s election administrators this month that it had identified just 185 potential non-citizens so far. It described the earlier figure as a “ceiling” and shared a list without names.

Surveys show that a large majority of the electorate supports the requirement of photo identification at the polls.