US President Donald Trump has held up India’s electoral system as a model for the United States, citing the scale of India’s elections and its use of voter identification as he renewed his call for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act.
In a Truth Social post on August 17, Trump said India’s Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, had recently questioned US officials about how elections could be conducted without a valid photo identification requirement. Trump used the exchange to argue that the United States should adopt tougher voter-identification rules.
“India’s last Election had 646,000,000 Voters! Less than 1% voted by mail, and every single Voter had to have a VALID Photo Identity Document,” Trump wrote, before calling on Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act.
The 2024 Indian general election involved more than 646 million votes cast, making it the largest electoral exercise of its kind. Indian voters generally use the Election Commission’s Elector Photo Identity Card, although approved alternative photo identification documents can also be used by voters whose names appear on the electoral roll.
Trump’s comments have put India’s election procedures at the centre of the continuing American debate over voter identification, citizenship verification and postal voting.
The SAVE America Act would require documentary proof of citizenship for registration to vote in federal elections and introduce identification requirements for voters. The legislation also seeks to restrict mail voting to specified circumstances.
Trump’s US ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, separately endorsed the president’s argument, writing that Trump was “absolutely correct” and urging Congress to pass the legislation while citing India’s 646 million voters and voter-ID system.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs welcomed the broader recognition of the country’s electoral system, saying the credibility and robustness of India’s election machinery was “well-established” globally.
Trump subsequently escalated his claims about US election integrity. In another Truth Social post on August 18, he said the Census Bureau had begun comparing 2020 voter records with citizenship records and claimed that more than 24,000 non-citizens had voted among the first 128 million records examined.
That figure has not been independently established as proof of 24,000 illegal votes. The Washington Post described Trump’s claim as unverified, noting that the figure represented only a tiny fraction of the total votes cast in the 2020 election.
Trump nevertheless used the claim to renew his demand for the SAVE America Act, arguing that stronger citizenship verification and voter-identification requirements were necessary to protect the integrity of US elections.
His intervention has created a comparison between the world’s two largest democracies, with India’s high-volume, largely in-person electoral system being invoked by the US president as an example of how voter identification can operate on an enormous scale.
The debate also highlights significant differences between the two countries. India conducts elections using electronic voting machines alongside extensive voter-identification procedures and limited postal voting, while US election rules are largely administered at state level, producing substantial variation in identification and voting procedures.
Trump’s push for the SAVE America Act remains politically contentious in Washington, with Democrats and Republicans divided over several provisions of the legislation.
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