To comply with an executive order issued by President Trump last month, the Guam Election Commission will require prospective voters to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote.
During a commission meeting Monday, a letter from attorney and former Sen. Thomas Fisher prompted discussion about the March 25 order titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.”
Commission attorney Vince Camacho summarized the order for commission members:
- People registering to vote must have proof of citizenship at the time of registration – a birth certificate, U.S. passport or RealID, military ID or other government ID indicating citizenship.
- Any absentee or mail-in ballots must be received by Election Day, with the exception of those cast by members of the military stationed overseas.
- The federal Department of Homeland Security is directed to review voter registration lists for accuracy and citizenship status.
- Federal Election Assistance funding, which for Guam currently totals about $200,000 a year, will be tied to compliance with the orders.
“There are, or could be, several impacts on how Guam conducts the federal elections for 2026,” Camacho explained.
He said the new documentation requirements could create barriers to voter access, especially for people without passports or RealIDs.
Guam law would have to be changed to comply with the absentee voter requirement, because currently, votes must be received within 10 days of the election. The order eliminates that grace period.
And handing voter data over to a federal agency “may lead to data privacy concerns,” he said.
The executive order is facing several legal challenges, he added, but right now it is in effect, and “the board should sort of consider what it needs to do to revise its current policies and procedures, pending the outcome of the litigation.”
Although commission members said proof of citizenship was required in the past to register to vote on Guam, laws have been updated and now people can attest to being a citizen when they register.
“I just have a problem with attestation, especially when it comes to votes,” Commission Chair Jerry Crisostomo said. “Proof of citizenship is the fairest way to go.”
He said although there are legal challenges, “it is an executive order and it stands today. We’re going to follow this.”
Crisostomo said the commission needs concrete points to recommend amendments to the Legislature, because laws will need to be changed. But voter registration is being undertaken now.
“We’re required to comply, at least in that provision of asking for proof of citizenship. The other provisions will follow once we make some changes,” he said.
(7) comments
What happens to the citizens of the Free Association of Micronesia (FSM) who are in Guam without a visa? Are they eligible to register and vote? Currently, they are eligible to receive Food Stamps and are entitled to Medicaid benefits.
In the US, only US citizens can vote legally...so if any immigrant that is naturalized may vote, ALL others are breaking the law if they commit perjury on the voter registration government forms.
So what are the estimated 21M people who have difficulty locating their birth certificate going to do? And let's not forget that ~20% of those with birth certificates will have difficulty because their last name differs from their birth certificate due to marriage, name changes, etc. When it comes to passports keep in mind that they are a marker for affluence. Only 1 in 5 citizens with incomes less than $50,000 have a passport. 2/3 of black Americans lack a passport. This is voter suppression pure and simple with no concomitant gain in security.
The fact of the matter is simply that noncitizens rarely vote in U.S. elections, something the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, reported on in 2020.
A 2015 analysis of the survey Trump later used to claim that 14% of noncitizens in the United States were registered to vote found that the result was simply due to human error — that is, all the "noncitizens" who marked themselves as registered to vote were almost certainly U.S. citizens who accidentally recorded themselves as noncitizens when taking the survey.
Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was fined $5,000 for voting illegally and registering to vote while serving a sentence for a felony, a judge ruled.
There have been 306 convictions across 37 states for voter fraud in all US elections between 2016 and 2020.
151 convictions related to a presidential or congressional race: 146 cases involved one vote, three cases had seven votes or less, and two cases had an unknown number of votes.
The political affiliations are known for 170 defendants: 39.4% of those convicted were Democrats, 41.1% were Republicans, while the remainder were Independent, nonpartisan, or unaffiliated.
It's mostly just Americans who illegally vote... don't listen to the rhetoric of "Democrats flying in immigrants to vote", it is a whole lot of BS and if Only wants to argue some more, they should quote their sources here... lol and I sure hope it isn't more the Liar in chief' s LIES or FOX propaganda.
https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/vote-suppression/myth-voter-fraud
This is bad news for the democratic candidates, watch thier voting numbers drop significantly. Haha
Nonsense
Only on Guam, just to be clear.... Proof of citizenship is not nonsense but your prediction of significant loss of votes is.
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