


The Trump administration faces two federal lawsuits from leftwing groups over President Donald Trump‘s executive order requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and directing states to reject mail ballots received after Election Day.
Filed on Monday in Washington, D.C., one suit comes from nonpartisan advocacy groups, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, Secure Families Initiative, and the Arizona Students’ Association. The other was brought by top Democratic organizations and party leaders, who argue the directive unlawfully overrides state and congressional authority over election rules.
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“Under our Constitution, the President does not dictate election rules. States and Congress do,” the complaint from the three groups said. It called the order “an attack on the constitutionally mandated checks and balances that keep American elections free and fair.”
Trump’s order, signed last week, instructs the Election Assistance Commission to require proof of citizenship on the national voter registration form and orders the Defense Department to add similar requirements for military and overseas voters. It also tells the attorney general to challenge states that count ballots arriving after Election Day — a practice allowed in roughly 20 states so long as the ballots are postmarked on time.
The Democratic lawsuit, led by Democratic lawyer Marc Elias’s firm, additionally targets a provision directing the Department of Government Efficiency to help identify noncitizens on voter rolls using federal data, calling the process error-prone and a violation of the Privacy Act.
The suit was filed on behalf of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and four national Democratic committees: the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Governors Association, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“Donald Trump and DOGE are doing this as an attempt to rationalize their repeatedly debunked conspiracy theories and set the groundwork to throw out legal votes and ignore election outcomes they do not like,” the pair of Democrats said in a statement.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields defended the move in a statement to CNN: “The Trump administration is standing up for free, fair, and honest elections … asking this basic question is essential to our Constitutional Republic.”
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The lawsuits echo legal battles from Trump’s first term when a voter fraud commission collapsed under court scrutiny. Plaintiffs in both suits are represented by the left-leaning Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was assigned to the lawsuit filed by Elias’s group on Tuesday.