SEATTLE — Washington and Oregon on Friday became the latest states to ask a court to reject President Donald Trump’s efforts to overhaul elections in the U.S., a day after Democratic officials in 19 others filed a similar lawsuit.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said the two states sued separately because they conduct elections entirely by mail and would be particularly harmed by the president’s efforts.
“Neither the Constitution nor any federal law gives the president authority to set rules for how states conduct elections,” Brown, a Democrat, said during a news conference. “It is the states that decide how voters are registered. It is the states that decide how ballots are counted.”
Friday’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle is the fifth against the executive order since it was issued last week. The order includes new requirements that people provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a demand that all mail ballots be received by Election Day. It also puts states’ federal funding at risk if election officials don’t comply.
That could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in the Pacific Northwest, where ballots must be postmarked — but not necessarily received — by Election Day. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs noted at the news conference that more than 300,000 ballots in Washington arrived after Election Day last year.
“President Trump’s executive order is nothing more than a blatant attempt to rig the system and suppress votes,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a news release. “He’s trying to make it harder for people to vote. It’s a direct assault on the Constitution and a brazen attempt to act like a king, dictating how states should run their elections.”
The lawsuits from the states follow earlier ones against the executive order by nonprofit voting groups and the Democratic National Committee. They say the order could disenfranchise voters because millions of eligible voting-age Americans do not have the proper documents readily available. People already are required to attest to being U.S. citizens, under penalty of perjury, in order to vote.
The lawsuits have said Trump’s directive violates the Constitution, which specifies that states have the authority to set the “times, places and manner” of elections. Congress has the power to “make or alter” regulations for elections for president and Congress, but the Constitution doesn’t mention any presidential authority over election administration.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields on Friday called the proof-of-citizenship requirements “common sense” and said the administration “is standing up for free, fair, and honest elections.”
Trump has continued to claim he won the 2020 election despite all evidence to the contrary. Courts rejected dozens of his legal challenges and his attorney general at the time said there was no sign of widespread fraud. Reviews, recounts and audits in the battleground states where he contested his loss all affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
He and other Republicans also promoted the idea during last year’s presidential election that large numbers of people who were not U.S. citizens might be voting. Voting by noncitizens is rare and, when caught, can lead to felony charges and deportation.
“It is hard to imagine a subject where this president has less credibility than he does with elections,” said Brown, citing Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and his loss to Biden. “He is always looking to undermine faith in our democracy.”