Menu Close

Voting Rights Groups Challenge Executive Order on Mail-In Ballots as Illegal Interference in Elections

From the League of Women Voters of the United States
A coalition of voting rights organizations filed a lawsuit in the US District Court today [April 2] for the District of Massachusetts challenging President Trump’s March 31 executive order concerning mail-in voting. The Constitution explicitly states that only Congress and the states can set the rules for elections. Nevertheless, the order attempts to displace states’ mail-in voting laws by transforming the US Postal Service from a neutral mail carrier to an arbiter of who may cast a ballot by mail.

The order also requires the Department of Homeland Security to build and give to each state a list of citizens eligible to vote. Given that federal databases are out-of-date and unreliable, this risks mass disenfranchisement of eligible voters.

The suit was filed by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the League of Women Voters, Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO), US Vote Foundation, OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates (OCA), and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Massachusetts, Brennan Center for Justice, Legal Defense Fund (LDF), Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), and LatinoJustice PRLDEF.