BY: DARRELL EHRLICK (North Dakota Monitor)
Nine states, including North Dakota, are challenging an executive order by President Joe Biden that would enlist federal agencies to help register residents to vote, and those states say the order undermines their power to control elections, calling it federally subsidized program aimed at boosting Democratic and left-leaning blocs.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen filed the federal lawsuit in court in Wichita, Kansas. The nine states are Montana, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
The heart of the lawsuit is Executive Order 14019, which was issued on March 10, 2021.
The states challenging the executive order say that Biden converts various federal agencies, turning them in part into “a voter registration organization” illegally. The attorneys general say that elections, including voter registration, are solely the province of states, guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Moreover, the states said that it’s an example of the federal government trying to usurp the sovereignty of the states, and giving the states no other choice than to resort to federal court. The lawsuit said the states were never invited into the process, never allowed to comment, and they accuse the Biden administration of hiding the plans.
“In response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the Biden-Harris Administration has asserted the plans are subject to privilege and may be withheld from public scrutiny,” the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit lists a number of federal agencies as defendants, including the U.S. Treasury, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of The Interior, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Department of Education.
The lawsuit also claims that the National Voter Registration Act means that federal agencies cannot stand in the way of citizens voting, but it also said that voter registration activity is left to the states, and Biden’s order oversteps its authority.
The 41-page suit outlines a number of ways the executive order commands the federal agencies to help bolster the efforts to register voters, for example:
“There is little detail about how agencies determine whether a third-party organization is ‘approved,’ ‘non-partisan,’ or what third-party organizations an agency can work with to promote voter registration,” the lawsuit said. “A rule that permits federal agencies to engage in voter registration activities trenches on States’ constitutionally protected sovereign rights.”
From a practical standpoint, the states claim that the federal government’s executive order doesn’t just exceed the constitution, but could threaten efforts in the individual states.
“The vast resources of the federal government render it unique among all possible entities engaged in voter registration. Because of the resources it can bring to bear, the federal government can engage in voter registration activities on a scale that will, as a practical matter, swamp any state’s attempt to regulate the government’s actions,” the lawsuit said.
The states also said that encouraging a variety of different agencies without proper training put the elections at risk of fraud.
“They failed to consider the risk of fraud or to implement actions to prevent fraud, which threatens the integrity of state administration of elections,” the states said. “This includes, at a minimum, ensuring that illegal aliens do not register to vote through the plans the agency defendants put in place.”
It is already against federal law for non-citizens to vote in elections. North Dakota does not have voter registration.
The states conclude the lawsuit by saying that the plans in the executive order weren’t motivated to help resident register to vote, rather they are part of a Democrat plan.
“(The executive order) was motivated by a partisan desire to unfairly increase the Democrat vote as shown by the fact that the order came from left-wing, progressive groups,” the suit claims. “The purpose is to promote left-wing politicians and policies at elections.”
