President Trump yesterday issued an executive order "to enforce Federal law and to protect the integrity of our election process." The move drew powerful block-back for its attempted consolidation of presidential power over elections. (The EO tries to do some of what the SAVE Act would do, again pending in Congress.)
A couple points stand out:
- The EO directs the Election Assistance Commission to change the federal voter-registration form to require "documentary proof of United States citizenship." (The form now only requires an attestation of citizenship.) It also directs "[t]he head of each Federal voter registration executive department or agency . . . under the National Voter Registration Act [to] assess citizenship prior to providing a Federal voter registration form to enrollees of public assistance programs."
- The EO directs HHS, "in coordination with the DOGE Administrator," to review states' voter-registration lists and maintenance activities "for consistency with Federal requirements."
- The EO requires the EAC to halt funding to states who do not "accept and use the national mail voter registration form . . . including any requirements for documentary proof of United States citizenship" as required in the first bullet, above.
- The EO requires the AG to enforce federal law setting the date of elections "against States that violate these provisions by including absentee or mail-in ballots received after Election Day." It also requires the EAC to condition federal funding to the states on their rejection of mail-in ballots received after Election Day. (This point draws on a creative theory (some might say an off-the-wall theory) that states cannot accept and count ballots after Election Day (even if mailed before election day), because Election Day is set in federal law.)