Donald Trump sought to require voters to present proof of citizenship and a passport before voting in the upcoming congressional elections. A similar Kansas rule, introduced in 2014, was associated with registration problems for about 30,000 residents, while only a few dozen noncitizens were found to have registered and only a handful were reported to have voted. Some voters who had the required documents were nevertheless unable to cast a counted ballot. In 2018, a judge declared the Kansas rules unconstitutional, and higher courts upheld that conclusion; the state was ordered to pay nearly $2 million in legal fees.

Trump promoted the federal SAVE Act, which would impose comparable requirements, after a similar executive order was blocked in court. The bill still lacked a majority in the Senate, although about a dozen Republican-led states had introduced similar rules and some already applied them to the coming midterm elections. Supporters cited alleged voting irregularities, including a New Jersey software error, while opponents said the requirements could disenfranchise voters, particularly naturalized immigrants.