Watch the DNC balloon toss and reactions from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz
This is what it looked like at the end of the DNC from the floor of the United Center in Chicago.
Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed an executive order on Monday requiring all state agencies to make it clear to all applicants for welfare or identification cards or driver’s licenses that only citizens can vote in Louisiana elections.
Most government agencies are required to provide a voter registration form to anyone applying for welfare benefits. Landry’s order requires that voter registration forms be accompanied by a written statement stating that only citizens are allowed to vote.
It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Louisiana or any other state or federal election, but Landry said his order would further strengthen election integrity.
“The right to vote is a privilege reserved for American citizens,” Landry said at a press conference Monday, where he was joined by Republican Secretary of State Nancy Landry and Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill. “In Louisiana, election integrity is a top priority.”
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Louisiana. The state is ranked 10th in election integrity by the conservative Heritage Foundation and was No. 1 in the South in the 2020 presidential election, according to the Election Integrity Project.
Nancy Landry, the state’s top elections official, said 48 noncitizens have been purged from Louisiana’s voter rolls in the past three years.
“I trust our policies and procedures … but I will not allow trust to become complacency,” she said. “This is an additional layer of protection to ensure that only (citizens) vote in Louisiana elections. I will not be satisfied until we are No. 1 in election integrity.”
Murrill echoed Landry’s sentiments and agreed that the Louisiana elections had been largely free and fair.
“Louisiana elections are secure and should remain so,” Murrill said in support of the governor’s executive order.
Governor Landry also promoted a new state law, Senate Bill 436, which requires proof of citizenship to vote in Louisiana.
This issue was raised by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Speaker Mike Johnson of Shreveport, in the run-up to the presidential election this year.
Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a bill this summer that would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration in federal elections.
Johnson said the SAFE Act, passed by the House of Representatives in July but not expected to be taken up in the Senate and opposed by President Biden, was a preemptive strike against election integrity.
“Would we rather wait until voter fraud occurs and then take action after the election is over?” Johnson said in the House of Representatives. “No, we need to expose the voter fraud in advance so that there is no doubt about the integrity of our votes.”
In a statement, the Biden administration said the “alleged justification for this law is based on easily disproven falsehoods. … States already have effective safeguards in place to verify voter eligibility and ensure voter rolls are accurate. This law would do nothing to secure our elections, but it would make it significantly more difficult for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters will be purged from the rolls.”
More: Louisiana Attorney General Jimmy LeBlanc resigns
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter at @GregHilburn1.
