US Prez Trump Contrasts Indias Aadhaar-EPIC Linking With Lax US Voter Identification

New York: US President Donald Trump has cited India’s requirement for voters to hyperlink their Aadhaar card with their Election Photograph Identification Card (EPIC) for example of a nation making certain the integrity of its election and contrasted it with the lax US voter identification system. 

In an order on Tuesday requiring voters in federal elections to show their citizenship, he in contrast the US and Indian practices, writing within the very first paragraph that India was “tying voter identification to a biometric database, whereas america largely depends on self-attestation for citizenship”.

“Regardless of pioneering self-government, america now fails to implement fundamental and obligatory election protections employed by fashionable, developed nations, in addition to these nonetheless growing”, he wrote. Underneath his order, voters can be required to offer a passport or sure different paperwork to show their citizenship to vote.

In distinction to the US, which doesn’t have a nationwide election system, in India, the election guidelines, legal guidelines, equipment, and techniques run by a robust nationwide Election Fee implement balloting integrity throughout the nation.

The Election Legal guidelines (Modification) Act handed in 2021 launched linking Aadhaar with EPIC. The Election Fee is finalising the mechanism for finishing this provision and a few voters have already achieved so. The US doesn’t have the equal to India’s Election Fee, and its Election Fee solely enforces election financing rules.

Elections within the US are carried out beneath state and native legal guidelines, which differ by state, and even the voting machines used and the system of the primaries or caucuses for choosing celebration candidates in elections differ.

California will come into direct battle with Trump’s order due to a state legislation that goes to the acute of constructing it unlawful to ask to see a voter’s identification. Not like India and lots of nations like these in Europe, the US doesn’t have a nationwide identification card, and folks use their driver’s licence as picture identification or their Social Safety quantity from the federal government retirement programme.

Some states difficulty voter ID playing cards, however with out pictures, whereas others don’t even try this. Trump’s order is definite to be challenged in courts as a result of the conduct of elections, even federal ones, is a state topic beneath the Structure. Democrats have opposed identification necessities, asserting that poor folks could not be capable to get picture IDs.

Republicans assert that due to the lax ID necessities, election fraud occurs. The early voting and postal voting guidelines additionally differ by state, they usually have been the targets of Trump’s criticism after he misplaced the 2020 election. His order will tighten guidelines for postal voting. Trump contrasted the unfastened voting procedures within the US with different nations.

“Germany and Canada require the usage of paper ballots, counted in public by native officers, which considerably reduces the variety of disputes as in comparison with the American patchwork of voting strategies that may result in fundamental chain-of-custody issues”, he wrote.

“International locations like Denmark and Sweden sensibly restrict mail-in voting to these unable to vote in individual and don’t depend late-arriving votes whatever the date of postmark”, he wrote.

In distinction, he mentioned, “Many American elections now function mass voting by mail, with many officers accepting ballots with out postmarks or these obtained nicely after Election Day”. He additionally cited Brazil’s requirement to hyperlink nationwide biometric nationwide identification with voter ID.