Watson claims information about voter registration efforts has not been made available to the public
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Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson is suing the Biden administration to stop an executive order that requires certain federal agencies to develop strategies to expand voter registration.
Watson, joined by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Attorney General Lynn Fitch, as well as others from eight states, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. Other states that have joined the lawsuit include Montana, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs allege that documents related to Executive Order 14019, which directs federal agencies to develop strategies to expand voter registration efforts, were wrongfully withheld from the public.
“However, these plans were not subject to notice and comment, nor were any of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) safeguards in place to ensure transparency and accountability,” a press release said Tuesday evening. “In fact, efforts by watchdog organizations and others to obtain copies of these plans were blocked. The U.S. Department of Justice even claimed that they ‘should be withheld in their entirety under the presidential communications privilege’ in a case brought by the Foundation for Government Accountability in federal court in Florida.”
Since the executive order took effect several years ago, Watson’s team has repeatedly tried to gather more information about which federal agency would be involved in voter registration in Mississippi and what that plan looked like. He has since expressed concerns about the legality of that effort on multiple occasions, saying his office, which oversees the election process in Mississippi, has not been kept in the loop.
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“From the day this unlawful Executive Order (EO 14019) was signed, my team and I had hoped it would be another Biden administration word salad with no action,” Watson said in the press release. “Unfortunately, that was not the case. In 2022, several Secretaries of State and I sent a letter to the administration urging them to resign. Our office has since looked closely at the implementation of the EO and sent FOIA requests to ensure we have enough facts to file suit and stop this absurd EO.”
Reeves and Fitch also commented on the lawsuit on Tuesday evening and sharply attacked the Biden administration for the executive order.
“This executive order is a prime example of why the Biden-Harris administration has been such a disaster,” Reeves said. “They are focused on everything but their jobs, and the American people are paying the price. Federal agencies should be focused on their core missions, not acting as an extension of the Democratic National Committee.”
“We fully support encouraging voter registration and fostering an engaged electorate,” Fitch said. “But to put the full weight of the Oval Office behind an initiative first developed by partisan activist groups and then to hide the agency’s activities from public scrutiny is going too far. The law does not allow that. Mississippi will not tolerate it. The people deserve answers, and we are demanding accountability here with this lawsuit.”
The plaintiffs allege in their lawsuit that the racial justice organization Dēmos influenced the executive order.
As of Wednesday morning, the Biden administration had neither filed a response to the complaint nor issued a public statement.
Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. Reach him at [email protected] or 972-571-2335.
