Donald Trump demands voter ID laws after accusing Democrats of knowing 'many people are voting illegally'

President's comments come day after dissolving voter fraud commission

Donald Trump has demanded the introduction of voter ID cards after accusing Democrats of covering up voter fraud.

The US President wrote on Twitter: "Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud. They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D."

Mr Trump's comments come just a day after he dissolved a voter fraud commission set up to look into his own unverified claims millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election.

Although the billionaire won the 2016 electoral college vote, he has appeared unwilling to accept his defeat by Hillary Clinton in the popular vote, using claims of voter fraud to justify the loss.

The White House said in a press release on Wednesday: “Despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to provide the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relevant to its inquiry.

“Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to dissolve the Commission, and he has asked the Department of Homeland Security to review its initial findings and determine next courses of action.”

Critics claimed the commission was set up merely in an attempted to justify the President's outlandish voter fraud claims. Chuck Schumer, Democrat minority leader in the Senate, branded it a "front to suppress the vote".

“The commission never had anything to do with election integrity," he said in a statement. “It was instead a front to suppress the vote, perpetrate dangerous and baseless claims, and was ridiculed from one end of the country to the other”.

But Mr Trump's renewed push for voter ID laws suggests he is not ready to drop the issue.

In a follow-up tweet, the 71-year-old wrote: "As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do.....except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country. Push hard for Voter Identification!"

Republican-controlled states have in recent years passed voting restrictions seen by critics as an attempt to suppress racial minorities, who tend to vote for Democrats.

A study by the University of California, San Diego, found that strict ID laws doubled the turnout gap between white people and Latinos in general elections, and almost doubled the gap between whites and black people in primary elections.