U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has blocked President Trump’s order protecting the nation’s elections by requiring people to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote.
The judge did not block Trump’s order requiring mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day to be counted.
According to the judge’s order, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is preliminarily enjoined from “taking any action to implement or give effect to Section 2(a) of Executive Order 14,248, including taking any action based on the Executive Order to modify the content of the federal voter registration application form described in52 U.S.C. § 20508(a)(2) to require documentary proof of United States citizenship.”
Sophia Lin Lakin, Director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement that Trump’s effort to “impose a documentary proof of citizenship requirement on the federal voter registration form is an unconstitutional abuse of power,” arguing that should it be implemented, Trump’s order “would place serious and unnecessary burdens on everyday Americans and strain already overburdened election officials.”
“This executive order is part of a broader attack on our democratic elections by promoting baseless nativist conspiracy theories. Today, the court blocked a key strategy of this attack,” Lakin said. “And we will keep fighting to ensure every eligible voter can make their voice heard without interference or intimidation.”
President Trump’s March executive order, called “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” says the United States “fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations, as well as those still developing.”
The order asserts that it is the policy of the Trump administration to “enforce Federal law and to protect the integrity of our election process.”
