President Donald Trump issued an executive order this week effectively putting more control of election law in the hands of the executive branch. Despite pushback from state elections officials around the country, Trump says the moves he ordered are necessary.

“We’ve gotta straighten out these elections,” Trump said while signing the order titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” “This country is so sick of the fake elections and the bad elections, and we’re going to straighten it out one way or the other.”

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon is pushing back against the order.

The two main changes involve requiring all people registering to vote to prove they are U.S. citizens and that all ballots must be received by Election Day. Simon says Minnesota already requires ballots to be received by Election Day, and he supports that. However, the proving citizenship requirement would be a major burden on local election officials and is aimed at a problem that is very minor.

“Last year, a professor at St. Thomas Law School here in the Twin Cities did a broad overview of 10 years’ worth of voting records here in Minnesota,” Simon said in an interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. “Ten years, 13.3 million people voted during that time. He found three — three people who were non-citizens who voted. Now that’s three too many, no question, we want it to be zero, but that is a really good, clean, honest record, and you don’t really want to shoot at a mosquito with a machine gun.”

Trump threatens to take away federal funding for elections for any state that doesn’t comply with the order. Simon is considering joining a lawsuit against the order because the U.S. Constitution puts control of elections in the hands of the states and Congress, not the executive branch.

“The president of the United States, any president, can’t just wish away laws that Congress passes and that state legislature’s pass,” he says. “They’re the ones — Congress and the legislatures — that say what the rules are behind voter registration and other things. You can’t just wish it away by waving a wand and an executive order.”

You can see the entire interview with Simon on “At Issue with Tom Hauser” Sunday at 10 a.m.