Shashi Tharoor welcomes Trump’s recognition of India’s Voter ID system

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has welcomed US President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of India’s voter ID system in his latest executive order aimed at overhauling the US federal election process. Trump’s order mandates proof of citizenship for federal elections and imposes new restrictions on mail-in voting, drawing comparisons with election systems in India and other countries.

Reacting to Trump’s remarks, Tharoor highlighted that India has had a robust voter verification system since 1952. “The interesting thing in America is that when you go to vote, you just self-declare your citizenship. In India, we have a list, ID cards, a whole system where we verify that the person voting is actually a citizen. It has been going on since 1952,” he said.

Tharoor added that India’s well-established system has gained international recognition, stating, “Certainly, there is a lot of respect around the world… for the American President to acknowledge India by example as a country that got this right and his country, he says, has not gotten right, I think that is something we all should be happy about.”

Trump’s order specifically highlights the contrast between the US election process and systems in other nations. It points out that while India and Brazil link voter identification to biometric databases to ensure greater accuracy, the US primarily relies on self-attestation for citizenship, raising concerns over verification. The order also draws attention to voting methods in Germany and Canada, where paper ballots are publicly counted by local officials, a practice aimed at reducing disputes. By comparison, the US follows a patchwork system that can create chain-of-custody issues.

The executive order also underscores mail-in voting restrictions in countries like Denmark and Sweden, which allow postal ballots only under specific circumstances and reject late-arriving ballots regardless of postmark. In contrast, many US states have widespread mail-in voting, with some even accepting ballots that lack postmarks or arrive well after Election Day. (ANI)