Attorney General Phil Weiser joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against President Trump, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the federal Election Assistance Commission, and other Trump administration officials over an unconstitutional, anti-democratic, and un-American executive order to impose sweeping voting restrictions across the country.
Among other things, the elections executive order attempts to recruit state election officials in the President’s campaign to require documentary proof of citizenship when Americans register to vote. It also seeks to upend commonsense, well-established state procedures for counting ballots that make it easier for peoples’ voices to be heard.
The President has no constitutional power to rewrite state election laws by decree, nor does he have the authority to modify the rules Congress created for elections. The coalition’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, explains that the power to regulate elections is reserved to the states and Congress, and therefore, the executive order is beyond the scope of presidential power, and violates the separation of powers. The attorneys general ask the court to block the challenged provisions of the executive order and declare them unconstitutional and void.
“The Constitution grants the states the right to manage elections. This elections executive order is an overreach by the White House and it threatens to undermine Colorado’s well-established gold standard for free and fair elections. That’s why we are challenging this illegal action and protecting our freedom to vote,” said Attorney General Weiser.
In their lawsuit, the attorneys general assert that provisions of the executive order will cause imminent and irreparable harm to the states if they are not enjoined. The challenged provisions include:
- Forcing the Election Assistance Commission to require documentary proof of citizenship on the federal mail registration form. Congress has never required documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote using the federal form.
- Commanding the head of each state-designated federal voter registration agency to immediately begin “assess[ing] citizenship prior to providing a federal voter registration form to enrollees of public assistance programs.”
- Forcing states to alter their ballot counting laws to exclude “absentee or mail-in ballots received after Election Day.” Consistent with federal law, members of the multistate coalition have exercised their constitutional and statutory authority to determine how to best receive and count votes that are timely cast by mail in federal elections. Many of the states provide for the counting of absentee and mail ballots received after Election Day.
- Threatening to withhold various streams of federal funding to the states for purported noncompliance with the challenged provisions, contrary to the U.S. Constitution and its underlying principles of federalism and the separation of powers.
Original source can be found here.