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A coalition of Democratic officials from 23 states, including Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the attorneys general of California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington sues the federal government over President Donald Trump modern executive order regulating postal voting.
Lawsuitfiled in Massachusetts, states that the ordinance violates the U.S. Constitution by usurping the states’ power to administer their own elections. The Constitution’s delegates determine the primary authority to hold elections, subject to rules established by Congress, but give the president no role.
“The United States Constitution clearly states that elections are to be administered by the states, and here in Pennsylvania we believe that election administration should be nonpartisan,” Shapiro said in a statement.
Trump has long claimed, without evidence, that mail-in voting is rife with fraud and has sought to curb it. On Tuesday, he signed, among others: executive order which directs the U.S. Postal Service not to deliver mail-in ballots from any voter who is not on the pre-approved list of voters who will receive mail-in ballots, and requires the envelope of each authorized mail-in voter to have a unique barcode.
The order also directs the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of adult citizens residing in each state and to provide that list to the states 60 days before the federal election.
The executive order is not Trump’s first attempt to influence how states conduct elections. Last March he issued an executive order which, among other things, tried to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. States sued under this order on similar legal grounds, and the courts have yet blocked the most this order main provisions.
This week’s lawsuit named Trump, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Social Security Administration, the U.S. Postal Service and several federal officials as defendants.
“The president’s latest attempt to interfere with the United States’ administration of elections is both unprecedented and unconstitutional,” the lawsuit said. “Neither the Constitution nor any act of Congress confers on the President the power to order radical changes in the electoral systems or procedures of the States.”
This is at least the fourth lawsuit filed against the executive order since Trump signed it on Tuesday. Two separate coalitions of voting rights groups sued Thursday, with one filing a lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts and second in Washington Democratic Party groups filed the first lawsuit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
“Only Democratic politicians and operatives would be upset by lawful efforts to secure American elections and ensure that only eligible American citizens cast ballots,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson he said. “President Trump campaigned on securing our elections, and the American people sent him back to the White House to do that job.”
Shapiro with the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Al SchmidtRepublican, immediately condemned the order when it was signed into law on Tuesday and signaled that legal action was imminent.
Shapiro joined the lawsuit in his capacity as governor, not on behalf of the state. Suing on behalf of the state is a responsibility that typically falls to the attorney general, and Pennsylvania’s current attorney general is a Republican Dave’s Sunday.
The attorneys general who joined the lawsuit represent Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia.
The modern lawsuit is just the latest litigation between the Trump administration and states over election issues. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued 30 states, including Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, over their refusal to turn over complete voter rolls. The Pennsylvania Department of State says handing over the data would be illegal because it contains private information.
Pennsylvania’s motion to dismiss this case is currently pending.
Carter Walker is a Votebeat reporter with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at [email protected].
Votebeat Editor-in-Chief Carrie Levine contributed.
