Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to withhold his signature from all bills until Congress passes a GOP-led voting bill that implements voter restrictions ahead of the November midterms.
“I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY – ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL,” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The bill, called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE America Act, requires individuals to show citizenship documents to register to vote and strict forms of photo ID to cast a ballot. If passed, the legislation would also administer criminal penalties for election officials who register anyone lacking the required documents.
As my colleague Ari Berman wrote in February, the bill would potentially block tens of millions of Americans from voting. Nine percent of American citizens, or approximately 21 million people, don’t have ready access to citizenship documents. The bill may impact millions of US citizens in other ways: tens of millions of women who took their partner’s last name, for example, may not have a birth certificate that matches their legal name could find it more difficult to register.
For the most part - it works exactly like what you described. What kinds of ID are valid, and to some extent whether you are required to present one at all, depends on which state you live in.
The fake mustache double voter would have to know the details of another person who is already registered to vote (only some states allow same-day voter registration) and gambles on the other person not showing up to vote.
One big difference between the US and a lot of other democracies (when it comes to voting laws) is that the US doesn't have any form of universal national identification documents - pretty much everything is issued on a state-by-state basis, and with very few exceptions those state level IDs don't actually say anything about citizenship - noncitizen permanent residents are allowed to get driver's licenses.