NEWS UPDATE:Democrats sue Trump over elections overhaul order……..Read moreΒ
The Democratic Party has sued the Trump administration over an attempt to impose sweeping changes on the election systems, including requiring citizenship proof to register to vote and limiting mail-in ballot counting.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, the Democratic Party asked a federal court to block the executive order, which prevents states from counting mail-in ballots that arrive after election day. The presidentβs directive also requires proof of citizenship to be presented β through documents such as a passport β when registering to vote.
βThe President does not get to dictate the rules of our elections,β said the lawsuit filed in Washington by the Democratic National Committee, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and others.
βThe Executive Order seeks to impose radical changes on how Americans register to vote, cast a ballot, and participate in our democracyβall of which threaten to disenfranchise lawful voters and none of which is legal,β it added.
After signing the March 25 order, called βPreserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Electionsβ, US President Donald Trump described it as βthe farthest-reaching executive action takenβ to secure US elections.
Trump, who does not acknowledge his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, has long questioned the integrity of the US electoral system. He has repeatedly and baselessly amplified conspiracy theories about massive election fraud in the United States, particularly involving absentee voting.
Legal scholars swiftly denounced Trumpβs election order as an abuse of presidential power that could prevent millions of eligible voters from casting ballots.
Advocacy groups led by the Campaign Legal Center and State Democracy Defenders Fund filed a separate lawsuit on Monday against the same executive order.
βThe presidentβs executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans,β Danielle Lang of the Campaign Legal Center said in a statement.
βIt is simply not within the presidentβs authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way.β
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