WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President of the United States Donald Trump on Sunday presented a variety of electoral proposals, such as limiting absentee voting and the days when Americans can vote, in his first public speech after his painful defeat election on November 3.
National pressure from Democrats to register new voters, including black and young voters, and Trump’s refusal to urge his Republican supporters to vote by free vote were considered factors in his loss of 7 million votes to Joe Biden.
In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Trump said election day should be just a day, not a number of days before the day of the actual vote.
“There must be a legitimate reason for someone to vote absent,” he said.
He also proposed eliminating postal voting, another factor in his loss, as well as requiring voters to show identification when they vote in person and universal signature correspondence for those who vote by absent vote.
Trump’s speech, which was drafted with the help of former adviser Stephen Miller, comes at a time when the Republican Party is pushing to change electoral laws and place new restrictions on voting after losing the White House and Senate in 2020 .
Dozens of local Republican lawmakers have introduced bills to limit access to voting in states across the country since then. A Georgia bill that would limit the use of hanging boxes and eliminate early voting on Sundays would reduce traditional “Souls for polling” electoral participation programs in black churches and would be devastating for black voters, activists say.
Trump said Republicans need to fight hard against a new voting rights bill, HR-1, which would revise voting rules and include a provision that independent commissions redesign congressional districts instead of state legislatures.
“This monster must be stopped,” said Trump.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons and Edwina Gibbs)