In a separate lawsuit filed in a Massachusetts court, attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union characterized the order’s provisions as blatantly unconstitutional.
Democrats have filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting.
According to PBS, the lawsuit marks the Democrats’ second recent challenge to the president’s elections power. Last year, Trump’s opponents successfully blocked an executive order that had the potential to reshape election procedures. The order was effectively voided after multiple federal judges found it unconstitutional and unenforceable.
On Tuesday, though, the president announced that he would once against try to limit Americans’ ability to vote. His executive order directs the U.S. Postal Service to only accept ballots that meet certain criteria, one of which is citizenship. Critics say that, with the midterm election now only months away, there is little time for states and watchdogs to determine whether the Trump administration’s citizenship rolls are up-to-date and accurate.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of high-profile Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as well as the Democratic National Committee and other party-affiliated organizations. President Trump is one of several named defendants.
“We will see him in court, and we will beat him again,” Schumer said in a statement.
Democrats have said that Trump’s executive order poses yet another threat to democracy.
“The Executive Order’s provisions are convoluted and confusing,” attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. “What is clear is that it dramatically restricts the ability of Americans to vote by mail, impinging on traditional state authority.”
“President Trump has tried again and again to rewrite election rules for his own perceived partisan advantage,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that “our Constitution’s Framers anticipated this kind of desire for absolute power” and sought to counteract it by delegating elections-specific power to states rather than the federal government.
PBS notes that mail-in ballots have been accepted for more than a century. Before the coronavirus pandemic, mail-in voting enjoyed increased popularity in both Democrat- and Republican-led states. But Trump’s loss to former President Joe Biden in 2020 led prominent conservatives to criticize the process, with many motivated by repeatedly-disproven conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
Other organizations have sued to stop the new executive order from taking effect.
In a separate lawsuit filed in a Massachusetts court, attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union characterized the order’s provisions as blatantly unconstitutional.
“In effect, the Order seeks to interpose a federal screening regime between voters and the ballot box by empowering a federal mail carrier to withhold certain voters’ ballots,” the ACLU said. “In doing so, the Order displaces the roles that the Constitution and federal law assign to the states and Congress to regulate elections and to USPS as a neutral, nondiscriminatory carrier of the mail.”
The White House has since responded to the lawsuits’ allegations, accusing Democrats of trying to disenfranchise voters by making it easier for Americans to cast ballots in federal elections.
“Only Democrat politicians and operatives would be upset about lawful efforts to secure American elections and ensure only eligible American citizens are casting ballots,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said. “President Trump campaigned on securing our elections and the American people sent him back to the White House to get the job done.”
Investigations led by both Republicans and Democrats have so far uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Sources
Democrats sue to block Trump’s executive order targeting mail ballots
Trump’s new role for USPS in mail balloting is unconstitutional, three lawsuits say
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