US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order tightening election rules in the United States, the White House said.
The order, signed on Tuesday evening, provides for the creation of nationwide lists of eligible voters, stricter checks on voters' citizenship and new rules for postal voting.
Its aim, according to the White House, is to strengthen election integrity and ensure that only US citizens vote - even though repeated election audits and data show that election fraud is extremely low in the US.
The order is to apply as early as the midterm elections on November 3 - critics see this as a possible encroachment on the powers of the states.
Since his election defeat in 2020, which Trump still does not recognize, he has repeatedly raised allegations of voter fraud, particularly in postal voting. When signing the order he also said he had "won three times convincingly."
Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and his allegations of fraud were rejected in numerous investigations and court proceedings.
At the heart of Trump's order are citizen lists. The Department of Homeland Security is to merge data together with the Social Security Administration and regularly send the states updated overviews of confirmed US citizens.
These are intended to make it easier to cross-check with electoral registers.
However, an entry on these lists does not mean that a person is also registered or allowed to vote, according to a White House statement.
In addition, postal voting documents are to be more tightly controlled. Postal ballots are to be marked with special identifiers and barcodes. The postal service is to deliver ballots only to people who are listed on the relevant lists.
Trump instructed the Justice Department to step up prosecution of possible violations of election laws. The order also provides that federal funds for states or municipalities can be cut if they do not comply with the requirements.
Experts voiced legal doubts, according to media reports. Critics accuse the government of using federal agencies and the postal system to exert direct influence on the conduct of elections, which in the US are organized by the states.
Similar initiatives by the government have in the past partly failed in court.
Several states have already announced lawsuits. Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, called the approach "un-American". "What we are seeing is a president trying to choose his own voters," he told broadcaster Ktar News.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, also wrote on the platform X that legal action would be taken: "See you in court."
Newsom's statement was echoed by Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield.
Oregon, the first state in the nation to conduct its elections solely by mail-in voting, has done that since the mid-1990s.
