Trump’s election order would add barriers for military voters

Military families who are deployed far from their homes will see their process for voting become more complex, risking their possible disenfranchisement, with President Donald Trump’s efforts to make certain election policies more stringent.

Military families who are deployed far from their homes will see their process for voting become more complex, risking their possible disenfranchisement, with President Donald Trump’s efforts to make certain election policies more stringent. Trump’s new executive order — which aims to boost proof-of-citizenship requirements and to pressure states to make other changes to their election practices — comes as military voters are already caught in the middle of legal battles over Republican efforts to toss overseas ballots. A Friday court ruling, for example, has jeopardized thousands of overseas ballots cast in a North Carolina Supreme Court race last year. Trump is now seeking to unilaterally revamp election policies to bring them in line with conservative goals, signing the March executive order that tries to implement policies that Republicans have not been able to achieve legislatively or through the courts. The military vote has long been seen as sacrosanct politically, and 1986 legislation that sought to clear some obstacles service members face passed with broad bipartisan support. However, the unfounded fixation by Trump and his allies on mass election fraud has translated into efforts that could disenfranchise those serving the nation’s interests abroad. Critics of the Trump order say members of the military stationed away from their home states may not have easy access to the types of documents the order seeks to require for registering to vote. Even if they do, finding a way to securely transmit those documents to election officials could be difficult. Additionally, Trump is targeting states’ practice of counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day if properly postmarked — a practice that is extended to military and overseas voters in nearly three-dozen states. “This order just doesn’t take into account our lived experiences and inadvertently creates unnecessary barriers for folks in the military or overseas,” said Sarah Streyder, a military spouse stationed in the United Kingdom and executive directive of the Secure Families Initiative, a military families organization challenging the order in court.