Pennsylvania is reviewing President Trump’s executive order that among other things would require new voters to provide proof of citizenship, Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt said during an online briefing about election matters coordinated by Keep Our Republic.
“Our team here at the Pennsylvania Department of State and the Office of General Counsel with the [Gov.] Shapiro administration are reviewing what consequences there could be from this and what would go into effect and what would likely be litigated,” Schmidt said in a response to a question.
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that would reshape the electoral process, from registering to vote to the counting of mail ballots.
Besides requiring citizens to show proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, Trump’s directive would require that all votes be counted by Election Day; some states, but not Pennsylvania, allow mail ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked, if not received, by the day of the election.
States that don't follow guidelines outlined in the executive order could lose federal funding, the order said.
Critics of Trump’s plan have pointed out that the Constitution leaves election operations to the states, although Congress can pass laws concerning voting and elections. The Constitution does not grant election authority to the president.
“Obviously, an executive order can't overrule federal and state election law,” Schmidt said.
He added, “Our county partners work year-round to make sure that our elections are free, fair, safe and secure in Pennsylvania, and I know that Gov. Shapiro will do everything in his power to protect voter rights in Pennsylvania and make sure that no eligible voter is disenfranchised unnecessarily as a result of an executive order or anything else.”
Studies have shown that only a small number of noncitizens vote.
Keep Our Republic, a nonpartisan civic education organization in Washington, D.C., is led by Ari Mittleman, a Lehigh Valley native. It occasionally hosts programs and media briefings about elections and voting.
Most of Thursday’s discussion focused on the Trump administration’s decision to end Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s funding for election security, which has been part of its mission to protect the U.S. against cyber threats. CISA, created in the first Trump administration, operates as part of the Department of Homeland Security.
As a DHS undersecretary from 2013-2017, Suzanne Spaulding led CISA. During the briefing, she explained how CISA employees worked closely with state and local election officials.
“CISA worked very hard over the succeeding years to build trust with those state and local election officials, and they did it by providing nonpartisan, valuable assistance across the cyber, physical and information spaces,” she said.
She referenced the 2024 congressional testimony of now-former CISA Director Jen Easterly, noting that since 2023 the agency provided weekly reports to nearly 1,000 “election infrastructure stakeholders highlighting vulnerabilities so they can be quickly remedied.”
Schmidt said CISA was helpful in the 2024 election. For example, a video showed a Bucks County election worker tearing up ballots, which he said was fake.
“CISA was able to quickly identify not only that it was fraudulent, but also the source of it, so that we could share with our counties and we could share with the public so confidence in the election wasn't undermined,” he said.
“One thing is for sure, and that's withdrawing the type of support that CISA provides makes elections less secure. It's not about an acronym,” he said. “It's about the resources the federal government provides to our counties that only the federal government can provide to our counties. That makes all this so concerning.”
He said Pennsylvania relies on other agencies, such as the National Guard and state police, to keep elections secure.
“I don't want to leave people thinking that our guard is down,” he said. “It is most certainly not down.”