With a coalition of California and other states, President Trump and his administration on Thursday sued his recent executive order aimed at radically reshaping voting rules around the country.
“My fellow Attorney General and I are taking him to court because this executive order is nothing more than an attempt to gain blatantly illegal power and deprive voters of their rights,” California Atty said. General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “Neither the Constitution nor the Congress will allow the President to attempt to limit votes. We will not be bullied by him. We will fight like hell in court to stop him.”
Trump, who mistakenly claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, issued on March 25th that he “preserves and protects the integrity of the American Election.”
Several other groups, including prominent democratic organisations and congressional members and major civil rights organisations, urging them to block the order earlier this week. The White House accused Democrats of raising “crazy” opposition to election protections “like compatibility” and dismissed the agenda as a false challenge.
Trump’s orders call for the US voting system to be very outdated behind other countries’ systems, voting in a terrible state, and adopting a new slate with national voting standards. It relies in part on the allegations Trump has made over the years without evidence that fraud is ramping in American elections and that fraud is ramping that non-citizen immigrant voting is a major issue.
If endorsed by the court, the order requires that all US voters present evidence of US citizenship, such as a passport or actual ID, before registering for the vote in a federal election. Trump argues that such requirements will help eliminate fraudulent votes by non-citizens.
Voting rights advocates say the requirement will deprive many American citizens of voting but not easily obtainable such documents. Critics of Trump’s policy also point out that non-citizen votes are extremely rare and are already illegal in federal elections.
Trump’s order would also require states to ignore mail-in ballots that are not received by Election Day. Currently, some states have different rules, including California. This accepts acceptance of votes being accepted if collected by Election Day and received within a certain number of days.
The lawsuit says the order supports “a process that addresses more voters, reduces obstacles, and increases voter participation.”
Critics of California’s rules argue that this is part of why it takes so long to count barrats and report results. California officials note that the state has tens of millions of voters, and say the delay is due to hard work to ensure that all valid votes are important.
Trump’s orders will also crack down on foreigners’ political contributions. This is a problem that arises from Republicans who are unhappy with the massive donation to liberal causes from Swiss billionaire Hanjorg Vis, who lives in Wyoming.
California, along with 18 other states in federal court in Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s order. Bonta’s office called the order “unconstitutional, anti-ethnic and non-American,” calling it a “immediate, irreparable harm” to California and other states.
Trump’s order would effectively force a nation to “train, test, coordinate, implement, implement and voter education across multiple state agencies and databases at a pace of intrusion,” according to the lawsuit. This requires “diversing election staff from critical election priorities, including ensuring the operation of the state’s voter registration system and sound operation of state and local elections” and “exclude enormous amounts of time and resources.”
Bonta said the order is more evidence of Trump’s “completely frustrated the rule of law.”
“Remind him: He is not the king,” Bonta said. “When he took office, he vowed to “preserve, protect and defend the United States Constitution.” He also has a constitutional obligation to “be aware that the law will be faithfully enforced.”
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state’s largest election official, called Trump’s orders “an illegal attempt to trample the constitutional authority of states and legislatures on elections.”
“Through history, people have sought to make voting more difficult through oppressive measures such as poll taxes, literacy testing, inappropriate voter roll purges, strategic vote closures, and voter intimidation tactics,” Weber said in a statement released Thursday. “Over the past 60 years, this country has failed to minimize the passage of voter rights laws and should not be erased.”
The Constitution widely supports states to determine “times, places, and ways” about how elections are held. It also gives Congress the power to “create or modify” regulations surrounding federal elections. However, it does not specify the role of the president.
Republicans accused President Biden of crossing these boundaries in 2021 when he issued an executive order directing federal agencies to promote access to vote. Democrats and other voting rights defenders have since accused Trump of exaggerating those same boundaries with his orders.
Several other groups have also sued Trump’s orders.
The Democratic National Committee was sued on Monday, with party leaders including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.), adding a variety of other Democrats.
Two separate lawsuits have been filed by the voting and civil rights groups. The main groups behind one of them, including the Women’s Voters Federation, the NAACP, and the American Civil Liberties Union, have alleged that the president “does not have the constitutional or legal authority to unilaterally determine how elections are held,” and that Trump’s orders are “a blatant violation of the separation of power.”
The group also accused Trump of spreading “false and racist stories” and creating “an unnecessary barrier to voter registration,” saying “millions of eligible voters, especially people of color, women voters, naturalized citizens, voters with disabilities, voters with low incomes, first-time voters.”
White House Principal Deputy Director Harrison Fields said in a statement that Democrats “continue to show their neglect to the Constitution and continue to show their insane objections to the president’s common sense actions to demand evidence of US citizenship to protect the integrity of the US election.”
In addition to denying that he lost the 2020 presidential election, Trump was accused of committing crimes in pursuit of maintaining power, and forgives violent supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021 to destroy the election results.
Thursday’s lawsuit is the 10th California has brought against the Trump administration since Trump took office in January. It was submitted to our Atty, Trump. General Pam Bondy, the U.S. Election Support Commission and other Trump administration officials.
Bonta is leading the effort alongside Nevada Ati. General Aaron Ford said. Other states participating in the lawsuit are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Times staff writer Andrea Castillo contributed to this report.
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