Federal court blocks Trump voter registration citizenship requirement – Washington Examiner
Federal court blocks Trump voter registration citizenship requirement
A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump‘s executive order requiring documented proof of citizenship for federal voter registration forms on Friday, after several Democrat-led states sued the president.
Judge Denise Casper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction against Trump’s March order, which had mandated the Election Assistance Commission ask voters to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.
Casper, an Obama appointee, ruled in favor of the Democratic states suing the Trump administration and was receptive to their claims that the order would cause harm to eligible voters who don’t have the proper evidence required to prove their citizenship.
“The States have also shown the risk of irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction where the challenged sections of the Executive Order would burden the States with significant efforts and substantial costs to revamp voter registration procedures and would impede the registration of eligible voters, many of whom lack ready access to documentary evidence of citizenship,” Casper wrote.
The federal judge also said the issue was not with whether citizenship is required to vote in federal elections, but rather whether the president can mandate changes to voting rules to require voters to show proof of citizenship.
“The issue here is whether the President can require documentary proof of citizenship where the authority for election requirements is in the hands of Congress, its statutes (the UOCAVA, the NVRA and the HAVA) do not require it, and the statutorily created EAC is required to go through a notice and comment period and consult with the States before implementing any changes to the federal forms for voter registration,” Casper said in her order Friday.
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Casper’s order also blocks the parts of the executive order which withholds EAC funds and allows the attorney general to take action against states that allow mail-in ballots which arrive after Election Day to be counted in the final tally.
The ruling from Casper marks the second instance where a federal judge has partially blocked the March executive order from the president. In April, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., also blocked the Trump administration from blocking the proof of citizenship requirement. The April ruling did not block the part of the order allowing states to be penalized for accepting mail-in ballots after Election Day.
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