Poll: Trump’s election orders would mass disenfranchise working-class voters

Fees for a new passport would prevent nearly half of lower-income voters from participating.

By Jordan Zakarin, More Perfect Union

President Donald Trump’s executive orders on election administration would create significant — and in many cases, insurmountable — barriers for working- and middle- class Americans to voting, according to a new poll from More Perfect Union and Blue Rose Research.

In his second term, Trump has taken aggressive steps to attempt to restrict voting. In March 2025, he signed an executive order to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. A more recent executive order would create a national database of voters and instruct the USPS to limit who receives mail-in ballots. (The March 2025 executive order was blocked in August, while litigation has been filed in response to the executive order pertaining to mail-in voting.)

Trump also continues to demand that Congress pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill that would radically limit voter registration and which experts say would be the most restrictive federal voting legislation in history.

The poll, which surveyed 3,129 registered voters between April 16 and April 27, found that the proof of citizenship requirements pushed by Trump set a bar for voter registration that most voters would struggle to meet. Just 26% of voters said that they have an up-to-date passport, while nearly a third of voters (32%) said that requiring a passport to register would make it more difficult or prevent them from voting.

Nearly half of voters (46%) said that the $130 fee to purchase a new passport would be a financial burden. Two-thirds of lower-income voters said the $130 cost would be a barrier and nearly half (47%) reported it would prevent or deter them from registering and voting altogether. Among middle-income voters, just over half (53%) said that the price would cause them issues, including just over a third (36%) who said it would make them less likely or unable to vote.

More than a third (35%) of high-income voters also said the $130 fee might cause them problems, including 25% who would be less likely or unable to vote.

The results show that voters with less education would be more affected by the additional restrictions. More than half (53%) of non-college voters would have trouble with the cost and nearly 4 in 10 (39%) would be less likely or unable to vote. Among college- educated voters: 37% would have some difficulty with the $130 cost. Additionally, 25% of college-educated voters would be less likely to vote (9%) or unable to vote (16%).

Awareness of these proposed executive orders increases with income: 57% of lower-income voters were aware of the order, whereas 65% of upper-income voters had heard about them.

There is also a stark partisan divide when it comes to awareness about Trump’s actions on voting: 34% of Kamala Harris voters said they’d heard a lot about the executive orders, whereas just 23% of Trump voters said the same.

Opinions about the two orders, along with the SAVE Act, are more uniform: nearly half of both lower and upper-income voters (48% and 49% respectively) believe it would have a negative impact, compared to just over a third (35% and 38%) who foresee positive results.