Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to overhaul the nation’s elections; however, he now faces two lawsuits, one of them by prominent Democrats.
On Monday, the Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund filed a lawsuit seeking to address Trump’s executive order. In addition to this suit, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governors Association, and Senate and House Democratic leaders filed a complaint of their own.
The two lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking the court to block Trump’s order and declare it illegal.
The Democrats’ lawsuit, filed by the Elias Law Group, alleges that “the executive order seeks to impose radical changes on how Americans register to vote, cast a ballot, and participate in our democracy—all of which threaten to disenfranchise lawful voters and none of which is legal.”
The legal challenge takes grievances about mail-in ballot receipt deadlines, the “president’s own design preferences” on “congressionally mandated voter registration forms,” and “the president’s unlawful effort to upturn the electoral playing field in his favor and against his political rivals.”
According to the Associated Press, attorneys cautioned that some of Trump’s demands in the executive order, including a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration and new ballot deadline rules, may violate the U.S. Constitution.
On March 25, the day Trump signed the executive order, he posted on Truth Social, “We believe that this Executive Order is the farthest-reaching executive action taken in the history of the republic to secure our elections,” during an ambassador meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House.
The Democratic National Committee lawsuit’s underscores the role of the government’s controversial cost-cutting arm, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
It claims that order’s data sharing requirements, including instructing DOGE to cross-reference federal data with state voter lists, violate Democrats’ privacy rights and increase the risk that they will be harassed “based on false suspicions that they are not qualified to vote.”
However, some top election officials in some Republican states have applauded the order, saying it could inhibit instances of voter fraud and give them access to federal data to better maintain their voter rolls.
