Walter Olson
Walter Olson
On March 25, President Donald Trump published an executive order purporting to overhaul the nation’s election system. Among its contents: requiring voters who use the federal registration form to furnish documentary proof of citizenship, preparing the way for decertifying commonly used voting equipment, and nullifying state laws that accept as valid some military and other mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day. It directs the Department of Homeland Security, in tandem with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to use subpoenas if necessary to gain access to state voter registration lists and list maintenance methods and scrutinize each “for consistency with Federal requirements.” States would also be told to hand over what information they had about election law violations to the feds for use by the latter. Funding cutoffs are contemplated for states that don’t cooperate.
We’ll see what the Constitution and the courts have to say about this.
Under our American system, voting and voter registration are predominantly responsibilities of the states, with Congress constitutionally empowered to add some overlays through legislation of general applicability. A president cannot change those basics by putting out an executive order, nor may he commandeer the states, through funding blackmail or otherwise, into acting as instruments of his pleasure.
The so-called SAVE Act, which I wrote about last August, is a bill in Congress that would impose national standards of documentary proof of citizenship. While it has been a Republican priority, it’s widely agreed that the prospect of a Democratic filibuster makes it unlikely to pass Congress any time soon. It appears that Trump has decided he can achieve much of the same effect—together with that of other controversial measures with poor prospects in Congress—by simple decree.
Of the various components of the order, there are some that I might agree would be good ideas if enacted by the appropriate authority, » Read More
https://www.cato.org/blog/presidents-cant-overhaul-election-law-decree
