22 Democrat States Sue to Stop Federal Election Reforms
Officials from 23 states sued the federal government on April 3 over President Donald Trump’s executive order on federal elections that reforms mail-in voting. Just one state has a Republican governor.
Trump said Executive Order 14399, signed March 31, was needed because “the cheating on mail-in voting is legendary.”
The Trump administration argued that the order is constitutional and is needed to help restore public confidence ahead of the midterm congressional elections in November. It requires the creation of a federal master eligible voter list and prohibits the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from sending absentee ballots to those not included on the lists, including deceased individuals. The order directs the post office to send ballots only to verified individuals included in the lists, with unique bar codes applied to each envelope-one per voter-to facilitate tracking and audits.
The new lawsuit comes after several Democrat Party campaign organizations filed a similar lawsuit on April 1 to block parts of Trump’s executive order.
The states are:
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Illinois
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
Plus:
- District of Columbia
New York Attorney General Letitia James and a coalition of Democratic attorneys general who filed the new legal action alleged that the executive order would disrupt state election systems, restrict mail-in voting, and threaten election officials with prosecution for doing their jobs.
The legal complaint described the executive order as an “unprecedented power grab.” The plaintiffs asked the court to block the parts of the executive order that mandate the creation of state voter lists and the preservation of records.
Trump signed the order on March 31 after Congress recently failed to pass the SAVE America Act, which would have imposed voter ID and election integrity requirements. Administration officials said the order was a necessary step to restore public confidence ahead of the midterm elections in November.
White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the provisions in the order would prevent past problems from being repeated.
“We believe, combined, the measures in this order will help secure elections in the future and ensure the many abuses of our elections in the past are not repeated in future elections,” Scharf said.
–The Epoch Times news service
